LIVE: ‘Victory of people of Delhi’, Kejriwal as AAP wins mayor, dy mayor polls

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday linked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summons to deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the excise policy case to the Supreme Court’s order on the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) mayoral polls on Friday.”

Kamaljeet Sehrawat (Dwarka), former Mayor of the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Gajendra Daral (Mundka) and Pankaj Luthra (Jhilmil) have been named as BJP’s candidates for the MCD’s standing committee.

Authorities have stepped up security inside the municipal House and on the Civic Centre premises in Delhi for the mayoral election. Several civil defence personnel, including women, have been deployed in the chamber of the House.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named Rekha Gupta and Kamal Bagdi as its candidates for elections to the posts of Mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

First time councilor from Delhi's East Patel Nagar ward - Shelly Oberoi - is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate for mayoral election in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). 

After MPs and MLAs, names of the councilors are being read out for the voting process. To cast votes, the order of ward numbers of the councillors is being followed.

Voting process for MCD mayoral poll has begun with BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi being the first one to cast her vote.

1.5 hour time has been fixed for the election process. Voting begins.

Sharma announces that mobile phone will not be allowed inside the polling booth

Presiding officer Satya Sharma has arrived in chambers. The house proceedings have started.

The mayoral poll for Municipal Corporation of Delhi was slated to begin at 11 am however, a brief delay in polls is seen as members are still arriving at the civic centre.

According to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the Municipal House has to meet within a month after the conclusion of the civic polls and elect the mayor. However, the election has been stalled thrice over the dispute over the voting rights of nominated members.

Traditionally, aldermen, as they are referred to, do not have this privilege to cast votes.

New Delhi Municipal Corporation of Delhi special officer Ashwini Kumar on Wednesday approved the schedule of taxes that will be applicable for the next financial year.

At the last meeting of the MCD House on February 6, three controversial rulings by Sharma pushed the House into chaos. She ruled that the 10 aldermen will get voting rights, all three elections will be held simultaneously, and directed two AAP MLAs to leave the House chambers, citing past cases against them.

The civic body had previously made three attempts - on January 6, January 24 and February 6 to hold the mayoral elections after MCD election took place in December.

The Supreme Court on Friday held that the 10 members nominated by the Delhi lieutenant governor (LG) will have no say in the appointment of mayor, deputy mayor and Standing Committee members of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), and directed the meeting for the election to be notified within 24 hours. Read more.

The mayoral poll will be held first, after which the person elected will preside over the rest of the polls, in accordance with the top court’s Friday ruling.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud remarked that the mayor has to be elected immediately as it does not look good if the mayoral polls are not conducted in the national capital. The top court also that the nominated aldermen cannot vote in the mayor elections, and made it clear that once a mayor is elected she will preside over the polls to the post of deputy mayor and the six members to the standing committee.

For the mayor's post, AAP has fielded Shelly Oberoi and Ashu Thakur. Oberoi is the party's main contender. On the other hand, Rekha Gupta is the BJP candidate for the top post.

The AAP claimed the aldermen - 10 of them - would have increased the BJP's tally of votes, and that it was against the rules to simultaneously hold elections for the post of mayor, deputy mayor and members of the standing committee, as had been ordered by the presiding officer. Read more.

The AAP claimed a big win in December, securing 134 of 250 wards to end the BJP's 15-year stranglehold over the Delhi municipal corporation.

Delhi chief minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal on Friday welcomed Supreme Court's order on the mayoral poll, calling it a “victory of democracy”. Read more.