Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 22: Armed with the Supreme Court verdict debarring the nominated members from voting, the Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday managed to capture both the mayor and deputy mayor’s posts in the prestigious Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on the fourth attempt after three election meetings had to be adjourned earlier due to ruckus created by both the AAP and the opposition BJP.
The AAP’s Shelly Oberoi and Aaley Mohammed Iqbal were elected the mayor and deputy mayor respectively which the AAP chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal described as the “defeat of the goons and victory of the people.”
The issue of the 10 members nominated in the MCD by the Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena participating in the voting had plagued the mayoral elections as the AAP tooth and nail opposed the move as it would have strengthened the BJP’s position in upsetting the AAP apple cart. After three election meetings had to be adjourned since December, when the AAP had won a clear majority in the MCD, Oberoi had approached the Supreme Court which ruled last week that Indian constitution did not provide voting rights to any nominated member and directed the LG to hold the mayoral elections immediately.
Shelly Oberoi, a teacher of the Delhi University, was elected the new Mayor of Delhi securing 150 votes while BJP candidate Rekha Gupta secured 116 votes of the total 266 elected members were allowed to vote including the 250 MCD councillors and the MPs from Delhi and representatives of the Delhi MLAs. After Ms Oberoi took over as the Mayor, the AAP candidate Aaley Mohammed Iqbal was elected Delhi’s new Deputy Mayor defeating the BJP’s Kamal Bagri by a margin of 31 votes. Mr. Iqbal bagged 147 votes against Mr. Bagri’s 116. The 39-year-old Oberoi has studied management from IIM, Kozhikode.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia congratulated Ms Oberoi and the party workers. “The goons have lost, the public won. Today in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the people of Delhi won and hooliganism was defeated,” Mr Kejriwal said.
Since the civic elections in December, which the AAP won with 134 seats in the 250-member House with BJP getting 104 seats and the Congress nine, the mayoral elections were postponed thrice amid a prolonged tussle between the AAP and the BJP.
Ms Oberoi had approached the top court, challenging the BJP’s contention that the aldermen – 10 members nominated by the capital’s Lieutenant Governor, a representative of the BJP-led government at the centre – are allowed to vote in the election.
Judges led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said nominated members cannot vote in the election. “Nominated members cannot go for election. The constitutional provision is very clear,” the court observed.
Next, six members of the all-powerful Standing Committee will be elected. In the election for the Standing Committee, AAP is likely to win three seats and the BJP two. The fight is over the sixth seat. If the nominated members (aldermen) were allowed to vote, the strength of the BJP would have gone up to 123 from 113.
“Starting tomorrow, all our councillors will start their work officially. The city’s landfills left untouched by the previous BJP regime will also be inspected tomorrow itself,” Ms. Oberoi said following her election as the mayor. “The 10 guarantees that CM Arvind Kejriwal has given to people, and the dreams that he has foreseen for Delhi, we will work on them,” the AAP leader said.
“Although my term as a Mayor will be short (about one month), I am going to give my best to address the issues,” Ms. Oberoi, the first mayor of the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi, said. Immediately after his win as Deputy Mayor, Mr. Iqbal said he was committed to the people of Delhi and will work for their betterment.
“We know that 80 days have been wasted by BJP but we will cover this in eight days. We have a lot of work to do and fulfilling the 10 guarantees by the Delhi chief minister will be our priority. We are committed to the people of Delhi and will work for the betterment of people and very soon that will be visible on the ground,” he said after the results were announced.
Kejriwal congratulated the people of Delhi over Oberoi’s win in the mayoral poll and hit out at the BJP saying the public won and the “goons” were defeated. “The goons lost, the public won. In the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the people of Delhi won and hooliganism was defeated. Congratulations to the people of Delhi on Shelly Oberoi being elected mayor,” Mr. Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi without naming anyone.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann dubbed the win as the “victory of democracy.” Mr. Mann also praised Mr. Kejriwal for his “spirit of fighting for the rights of people.” “Victory of democracy…congratulations to the people of Delhi. Salute to Arvind Kejriwal ji’s spirit of fighting for the rights of people,” said Mr. Mann in a tweet in Punjabi.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shakar Kapoor congratulated Ms. Oberoi on her election, and also added: “It is regrettable that the woman Mayor will get a very short term of just 38 days and so all parties should come together to elect a woman Mayor for full one year term in April 2023.”
Earlier in the day, when the voting began, BJP MPs Meenakshi Lekhi and Hans Raj Hans were among the firsts to cast their votes. Election to the posts of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and six members of the standing committee were held.
Other BJP MPs — Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, Harsh Vardhan, Gautam Gambhir, Ramesh Bidhuri and Manoj Tiwari — and AAP MPs Sanjay Singh, N D Gupta and Sushil Kumar Gupta also exercised their franchise. AAP MLAs Durgesh Pathak and Atishi also cast their votes. The electoral college comprised the 250 votes from the elected councillors, seven BJP Lok Sabha members and three AAP Rajya Sabha member from Delhi and 14 MLAs, including 13 from the AAP and one from the BJP.
In the MCD House, the Congress has nine Councillors. Declaring the poll results, Presiding officer and BJP Councillor Satya Sharma announced the names of eight Councillors who were absent from the voting process. All these Councillors were from the Congress.
Authorities stepped up security inside the Municipal House and on the Civic Centre premises in Delhi for the mayoral poll. Several civil defence personnel, including women members, have been deployed in the chamber of the House.
Supreme Court had on February 17 ordered the issuance of a notice within 24 hours for convening the first meeting of the MCD to fix the date of elections for the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor and the members of the standing committee of the civic body. The court issued the order after hearing a plea moved by Shelly Oberoi, who had sought an early conduct of the election.
The maiden meeting of the newly elected 250-member MCD House on January 6 was adjourned following ruckus between the AAP and the BJP members, and two successive meetings on January 24 and February 6 were also adjourned without electing the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor amid loud protests by AAP councillors over the presiding officer’s decision to administer oath to the 10 aldermen first.
