Delhi mayoral polls to be held on Tuesday

The Delhi mayoral polls were delayed following exchange of blows between AAP and BJP councillors during the last MCD House meeting on January 6

The Delhi mayoral elections will be held at the Municipal Corporation headquarters in the city on Tuesday, nearly three weeks after the process was adjourned following exchange of blows between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors, officials familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Ruckus at the civic centre in Delhi as BJP and AAP workers clash prior to the commencement of voting for the Delhi Mayor elections (ANI Photo) (ANI)

For the mayor’s post, the AAP has fielded Shelly Oberoi and the BJP has fielded Rekha Gupta; for the deputy mayor post, the AAP has fielded Aaley Mohammad Iqbal and the saffron party has fielded Kamal Bagri.

The House is scheduled to begin from 11am at the Civic Centre, the headquarters of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The aldermen and the newly elected councillors will be administered oath in the House after which the mayoral election will begin, MCD officials aware of the development said.

Municipal secretary Bhagwan Singh told HT that the House is being convened as per the approval given by lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena last week. First the mayor election will be held followed by election for the deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee members, he said.

“The results of the mayoral and other polls will be declared by the presiding officer soon after the votes are polled,” Singh added.

The House will be presided over by Satya Sharma, a BJP councillor, who has been appointed presiding officer by the LG.

Sharma had presided over the January 6 MCD House as well which descended into chaos soon after it began as AAP members protested the decision by him to administer the oath first to 10 nominated members, called aldermen.

The AAP claimed this was done to allow the aldermen to “vote in the mayoral polls” and favour the BJP, while both the BJP and the LG have denied the allegation.

To be sure, according to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, aldermen do not have voting rights in the House.

The MCD has been without a mayor for the last 8 months. Underling the absence of the mayor, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who holds the urban development ministry portfolio, had stated that it would not be appropriate to further delay the process. Sisodia had proposed four potential dates for holding the House meeting before Republic Day -- January 18, 20, 21 or 24.

The 250-member strong House has 134 AAP councillors, 105 BJP councillors (It won 104 seats and one independent candidate joined the BJP on Monday), 9 Congress councillors and two independents.

The electoral college for the election of mayor includes 250 elected councillors, seven members of the Lok Sabha, three members of the Rajya Sabha and 1/5th of the members of the Delhi Assembly (14 MLAs) nominated by the Speaker by rotation every year. Delhi Assembly speaker on Friday nominated 13 AAP MLAs and one BJP MLA for representation in the MCD.

Besides 134 councilors, the AAP has three Rajya Sabha MPs, 13 MLAs in the electoral college (150 votes), where as the BJP has 105 councillors, seven Lok Sabha MPs and one MLA (113 votes). While the 10 persons nominated by the LG (administrator), called alderman, are also part of the House of councillors, they do not have voting rights in the House.