Third attempt: Municipal House convenes to elect Delhi mayor; Manish Sisodia slams BJP

After failing to complete the election in two previous attempts, the Delhi municipal House is set to convene on Monday to elect a mayor for the national capital.

The third session of the House is slated for Monday to elect a mayor. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi election was held on December 4 and the counting of votes took place on December 7.

Meanwhile, Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia alleged that the BJP has instructed its councillors not to allow the mayoral election to be held again in the MCD meeting today.

“BJP councillors have been told to create a ruckus on any pretext as soon as the house starts. Like last time, the house will be adjourned indefinitely again. LG will again give the date after 20 days,” Sisodia tweeted.

Here are the top points on Delhi mayoral election:

1. The first two sessions were held on January 6 and January 24, but they were adjourned by the presiding officer without electing a mayor following a ruckus and acrimonious exchanges among the members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Paty.

2. While the first session of the 250-member House after the December 4 poll went fully in vain, in the second session, the nominated members followed by elected members took the oath.

3. After the oath-taking exercise, the second municipal House was adjourned till the next date by the presiding officer and BJP councillor Satya Sharma.

4. While BJP members had walked out of the chamber shouting anti-AAP and anti-Arvind Kejriwal slogans, the AAP members held a peaceful protest in the House for nearly five hours.

5. Later, AAP’s mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi had moved the Supreme Court on the delay in holding the mayoral election.

6. Besides the mayor and deputy mayor, six members of the MCD’s standing committee are also slated to be elected during the municipal House. > The nominees for the post of deputy mayor are – Aaley Mohammad Iqbal (AAP) and Kamal Bagri (BJP).

7. The AAP had emerged as a clear winner in the election, bagging 134 wards and ending the BJP’s 15-year rule in the civic body.

8. The BJP won 104 wards to finish second, while the Congress won nine seats in the 250-member municipal House which will convene on February 6 for the third time after the 2022 civic polls. BJP’s mayoral candidate is Rekha Gupta.

9. As per the DMC Act 1957, the mayor and the deputy mayor are to be elected in the very first House that convenes after the civic polls. However, it’s been two months since the municipal elections were held, and Delhi is still to get a mayor.

10. 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, the third for the reserved category, and the remaining two also being in the open category.