Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 27: The BJP on Friday won a majority in the standing committee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in the absence of any of its opponents when it claimed the 18th and the last seat in an election that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party said was “illegal.”
The AAP decided to boycott the elections while the Congress had decided to stay away in the fight between the AAP and the BJP. Though the AAP had won a majority in the MCD in the elections held a couple of years ago, the tussle was on between the two parties for the control of the all-important 18-member standing committee which decides all the developmental projects and their outlays for the general body only to give its stamp of approval.
The BJP’s Sundar Singh Tanwar got 115 votes, exactly the number of BJP councillors in the House, in the election that featured only his party’s councillors. Tanwar’s win – which will almost certainly be challenged in court – means the BJP now has control over the Standing Committee, which is widely seen as the real power behind the municipal body. The BJP now has 10 of its 18 members and can select the Chair.
The AAP has 125 councillors and, had the party voted today (and providing none of its votes would have been poached by the BJP) it would most likely have won the election, and control of the Standing Committee, which takes most of the municipal body’s financial decisions. AAP’s candidate Nirmala Kumari received zero votes in the polls as the AAP did not participate in the voting process, maintaining that the polls are illegal.
AAP councillors were not present in the house and refused to participate in the voting. The Congress had announced on Thursday that their nine councillors will abstain from voting.
All of this comes after the AAP last night decided to boycott the elections soon after the Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena summoned the MCD session for 1 PM on Friday for elections to the standing committee. This morning ex-Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia once again rejected the “illegal election” scheduled for 1 pm, and said, “There is nothing today”. Shortly afterwards party boss Arvind Kejriwal said “it is written in the law… only the Mayor has the right to call a sitting of the House.”
“We live in a democracy. It is written in the law that whenever the House is called, 72 hours will be given. Every councillor needs time. There seems to be something wrong with their intentions. There seems to be a conspiracy to do something wrong, that is why they are doing all this…” Mr Kejriwal said.
On Thursday Mayor Shelly Oberoi said, “I have written a letter to the Commissioner (of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi) that the election to be held today is unconstitutional and illegal.” On Friday morning again she said had not convened the special session and termed the election “unconstitutional” and announced that AAP councillors would not take part in the poll.
But Mr Saxena sought to overturn that order, demanding MCD Commissioner Ashwini Kumar “submit a report of conduct of elections… by 10 pm today” and that the Deputy Mayor oversee proceedings if Ms Oberoi declares herself unavailable for any reason.
Earlier in the day, voting for the vacant seat in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s standing committee, its highest decision-making body, began with Additional Commissioner Jitender Yadav presiding over the process. According to the legal proceedings, the Presiding Officer read the list of absent councillors thrice, giving them time to vote in case they wish to. The Presiding officer waited until 3:30 p.m before starting the counting process. But the AAP has stood firm on its stance that these polls are illegal and should be declared null and void.
Before the commencement of voting, an MCD official laid out rules for the casting of votes. He pointed out that no mobile phones were allowed in the House during the elections — a point of contestation because of which the polls were postponed on Thursday.
Friday’s elections to the standing committee is the latest in a long line of bitter squabbles between the AAP and Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor, VK Saxena. The vacancy was created after the BJP’s Kamaljeet Sehrawat quit on being elected to the Lok Sabha from the West Delhi seat in the April-June election.