MCD polls: BJP will drop sitting councillors ‘for corruption’, says AAP

To be sure, the elected house of municipal corporation is currently under suspension with a Special Officer appointed by the Centre heading the deliberative wing of the MCD

With speculation rife that the municipal polls in Delhi are likely to be held soon, the war of words between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has intensified with both the parties on Monday accusing each other’s councillors of indulging in corruption.

AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak, who is also handling the party’s MCD polls campaign (HT Photo)

AAP MLA and party’s incharge of MCD affairs Durgesh Pathak said that the BJP has decided not to field any of its “sitting councillors” in the next MCD elections because “all of them are corrupt”. The BJP was quick to rebut the charge with party’s Delhi unit spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor levelling similar charges against the AAP councillors.

To be sure, the elected house of municipal corporation is currently under suspension with a Special Officer appointed by the Centre heading the deliberative wing of the MCD. The officer was appointed after the three municipal corporations were merged by the Centre in May. He will continue in the post till the first meeting of the elected House of councillors, according to the Delhi Municipal Corporation (amendment) Act, 2022. Before the merger, the BJP had been ruling the civic bodies for the past 15 years.

“During 2017 elections, all their councillors were found to be corrupt. They used to extort money from builders and misappropriated MCD funds,” Pathak said at a press conference on Monday.

Kapoor dismissed the claims as baseless. “All AAP councillors are neck-deep in corruption and they have done nothing for the people of their wards,” he said.

Pathak alleged that the decision to not repeat the last councillors was an “admission by the BJP of their involvement in corruption”. He asked the BJP why it did not initiate action against the corrupt councillors. “No proceedings were initiated. Not even a single FIR was filed, no CBI-ED investigation was initiated against even a single BJP councillor,” said Pathak.

“In the upcoming elections, the people of Delhi will defeat the BJP. They will teach a lesson to BJP councillors and they will not be able to save their security deposits,” said Pathak.

Kapoor hit back, and said that the people will reject all AAP candidate in the MCD polls.