AAP and BJP councillors clashed over the appointment of 10 aldermen by Lt Governor VK Saxena as the first meeting of the newly elected Municipal Corporation of Delhi House began on Friday, news agency PTI has reported.
The meeting began with BJP councillor Satya Sharma being administered the oath as presiding officer for the elections to the posts of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) mayor and deputy mayor.
After Sharma invited alderman Manoj Sharma to take his oath, AAP MLAs and councillors began to protest. Many also rushed to the well of the House, shouting slogans.
The BJP councillors retaliated by raising slogans against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal as AAP members returned fire by sloganeering against PM Modi.
The AAP has alleged that Saxena has appointed BJP leaders who were not experts in civic issues as aldermen.
On 5 January, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also wrote to Delhi LG over the "unconstitutional" manner in which 10 aldermen were nominated to the MCD by bypassing the Delhi government, saying this was a complete departure from the settled practice. In a related development, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also wrote to the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, asking him to "desist" from taking any further action on the issue. Aldermen refers to people who are experts in their fields. However, they do not have voting rights in the mayoral election. Ten aldermen were nominated to the MCD ahead mayoral poll. Kejriwal claimed the nomination was done "entirely bypassing the Council of Ministers of the democratically elected Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi"
The MCD House comprises 250 elected councillors. The BJP's seven Lok Sabha MPs from Delhi and the AAP's three Rajya Sabha MPs and 14 MLAs nominated by the Delhi Assembly Speaker will also participate in the elections to the posts of mayor and deputy mayor. Delhi will pick a new mayor, deputy mayor, and speaker of the house.
Six members of the standing committee will also be elected. The first municipal House after the high-stakes civic polls on December 4 is taking place today when all newly elected councillors will take oaths and the mayor and the deputy mayor will be elected. For the Mayor's post, AAP has fielded Shelly Oberoi and Ashu Thakur. Rekha Gupta has been nominated from the BJP. Oberoi is AAP's main contender.
The nominees for the post of deputy mayor are Aaley Mohammad Iqbal and Jalaj Kumar from AAP. Kamal Bagri has been nominated from BJP for the deputy mayor's role. Seven candidates are in the fray for 6 posts on the Standing Committee. Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Amil Malik, Raminder Kaur, Mohini Jeenwal and Sarika Chowdhary while BJP has Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Gajendra Daral and Pankaj Luthra as its candidates for the Standing Committee.
The post of mayor in Delhi sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second for the open category, third for the reserved category, and the remaining two also being in the open category.
Congress leader Anil Chaudhary said the Delhi unit of the party unanimously decided not to support the AAP or the BJP in the elections for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and the leader of the house in the Municipal Corportion of Delhi.
Heavy deployment of police was in place at the Civic Centre building, the MCD headquarters, where the meeting is underway.
(With inputs from agencies)
