Delhi mayoral polls delayed again after ruckus in the House

Session was thrown off track in just the final half-hour as BJP members swarmed the well of the House, raising slogans just as functionaries were preparing to conduct the mayoral election

For nearly four hours, the second session of the newly elected Municipal Corporation of Delhi played out relatively peacefully, in stark contrast to the previous meeting three weeks ago, when an unfettered brawl between councillors of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) forced the session to be called off.

AAP and BJP Delhi councilors shout slogans during the oath ceremony and election of mayor and deputy mayor at the MCD Civic Centre, in New Delhi, India, on Tuesday. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

But Tuesday’s session was thrown off track in just the final half-hour, after all the nominated representatives and councillors were sworn in, as BJP members swarmed the well of the House, raising slogans just as functionaries were preparing to conduct the mayoral election.

Though the key bone of contention between the AAP and BJP on January 6, over oaths being administered to the nominated aldermen before the elected councillor, played out unchanged, members of Delhi’s ruling party were, in a change from the previous session, seen trying to calm down their restive counterparts and allow the mayoral election.

The presiding officer, BJP councillor Satya Sharma, made little attempt to defuse the tensions, eventually adjourning the House meeting indefinitely after a 15-minute break.

The house proceedings on Tuesday started at around 11.15am, with Sharma calling on the 10 aldermen to take oath first.

Mukesh Goyal, the leader of AAP councillors, insisted in the House that the aldermen should, “according to established procedures”, not be sworn in before the elected members.

His appeal was dismissed and the aldermen took oath over the next seven minutes, during which AAP members raised slogans from their seats. The aldermen question was settled at around 11.27am, and over the next three hours, the 249 elected members took their oaths of affirmation in a relatively calm setting, with few disruptions, barring the occasions when a few members raised slogans praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The trouble began when the oath-taking process wrapped up, and the presiding officer announced a short break to prepare for the mayoral polls.

During the break, BJP members raised a series of slogans, which continued when the session resumed. At this point, Goyal made another appeal to the chair, arguing that nominated members did not have voting powers in the mayor elections and should not be present in the chambers during the vote.

Over the next 15-20 minutes, there were multiple arguments, minor jostling, and arguments between sections of councillors. Still, the scenes were nowhere near as raucous as the January 6 meeting, when fist fights and brawls marked a shameful day for Delhi’s civic administration.

After adjourning the house for 15 minutes, Sharma announced that the House “could not be held in such an environment” and adjourned the session till a further date.

Sharma said she was ready to conduct the mayoral elections, even as she underlined that the next session may not be “immediately possible” due to the Republic Day celebrations.

“We had even kept the ballot boxes, but the proceedings were affected due to the ruckus. I appealed to members to remain peaceful several times, but no one paid heed. I will meet the lieutenant governor and brief him about the entire situation. An immediate meeting may not be possible due to the Republic Day celebrations,” she added.

Besides the 250 councillors, 14 Delhi MLAs, and 10 Delhi parliamentarians form the electoral college for the mayor. Of the 274 voters, the AAP has the backing of 150 members and the BJP 113. The Congress has nine councillors and two others are independents.

AAP members stayed on in the chambers, in protest, till 7.45pm, with members giving speeches against the BJP.

AAP MLA Jarnail Singh, who was present in the House, accused the BJP of fomenting tensions because “it doesn’t have a majority”.

“Despite our resistance to administer oaths to nominated members first, the BJP broke the trend. We didn’t react even then. They were provoking our councillors to break into a scuffle, but we stayed calm,” he said.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor, on his part, said CM Kejriwal “doesn’t want Delhi to get a Mayor”.

“He fears that a unified single Mayor may become more popular than him and become a potential threat to his political control of the party. MCD is an independent entity with a huge budget and the mayor gets as much media attention as the CM,” said Kapoor.