Delhi Mayor Election: The contention over the appointment of a Presiding Officer to conduct the voting for mayoral elections for the Delhi civic body does not seem to be ending any time soon. Both AAP and BJP have engaged in a war of words and accusations over the chaos that marked the very first day of the MCD house resulting in no work at all.
BJP’s Reaction
After AAP accused Delhi LG Vinay Saxena of ‘illegally nominating’ BJP workers as alderman, the saffron party has responded by saying Kejriwal government had named 30 people affiliated to the AAP in the previous tenure of the civic body.
Reacting to AAP’s allegations, Delhi BJP spokesman PS Kapoor said it would have been better if the Aam Aadmi Party, before questioning the political background of the people appointed as aldermen, had recalled the political background of those nominated in the 2017-22 Corporation House by the Kejriwal government, reported PTI.
Kapoor claimed that in 2017, the Delhi government had the right to appoint 10 aldermen, but 30 workers of the AAP were appointed.
According to a PTI report, he said that AAP spokespersons Ghanendra Bhardwaj and Captain Shalini lived in the South Delhi Corporation area but were appointed aldermen of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation.
Alderman Haji Yunus appointed in East DMC in 2017 became Aam Aadmi Party MLA in 2020 and alderman Atul Gupta contested MLA election from Vishwas Nagar in 2020 on AAP's ticket, he added.
Similarly, BS Joon was nominated to South Delhi Municipal Corporation as an alderman who became the Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Bijwasan in 2020, Kapoor said adding that Kuldeep Mittal and Satyapal Kaim were also affiliated to the AAP and yet nominated as aldermen.
Kapoor claimed that all the former aldermen openly claim to be AAP leaders and have installed boards and nameplates citing their affiliation in their areas.
AAP’s Allegations
The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday accused Delhi LG V K Saxena of “illegally nominating” BJP workers as aldermen instead of those with experience in municipal administration. AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj made the remarks while addressing a press conference.
He said, “Article 243 R and S of the constitution states that these should be candidates who have special knowledge and experience in matters related to Municipal Corporation. But the 10 aldermen chosen for the MCD house had little relevant experience and all of them were BJP workers.”
“So you expect the people who are nominated for this position to fulfill these specifications?” he asked the LG.
Attacking LG Vinay Saxena for his decision, he said, “The LG likes to usually take a position of moral righteousness in front of the media, but the language that he has been using against the CM is very degrading...He behaves as if all decisions taken by him are by the rule book, but I want to ask him today that these candidates that he has selected as the nominated councillors of the MCD, who are basically people who hold various posts of the BJP district unit, where did you find these candidates?”
“While selecting the pro tem Mayor, the LG gave a long list of criteria, but finally broke all the rules to select a BJP candidate”, he alleged.
Bhardwaj said that the LG office had said the final two candidates were Neema Pathak and Satya Sharma, with Sharma being nominated for the presiding officer's post, the PTI report mentioned.
"He said that they have both been mayors and ended up picking the person who was a Mayor in 2012-13. The other person was a Mayor in 2015. He at least should have picked the person who was the Mayor later. Why is all this happening?” Bhardwaj questioned.
The Controversy
Delhi LG Vinay Saxena nominated Satya Sharma as pro tem presiding officer of the Delhi civic body meeting from a list of six sent to him by the AAP government. The members of AAP were irked by the decision. However, the matter took a drastic turn when Sharma called nominated members for oath-taking before the elected councillors, igniting a scuffle between the two parties.
(With PTI Inputs)