AAP cries ‘gaddar’ as BJP’s Pawan Sehrawat votes in MCD panel poll
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House reverberated Friday with chants of ‘gaddar’, or ‘traitor’, from Aam Aadmi Party councillors as the BJP’s Pawan Sehrawat cast his vote to elect members of a standing committee.
Formerly an AAP councillor from the national capital’s Bawana ward, Sehrawat jumped ship this morning – just hours before voting.
A video of the voting showed Sehrawat greeted with jeers and angry shouts from the AAP lawmakers as he walked down from his seat to the Well of the House to collect his ballot.
The hostile reception left him unfazed though; he walked past with a smile on his face, seemingly unperturbed by the cries, and raising his hand and twiring his finger in the air.
As he joined the BJP earlier today, Sehrawat declared he felt ‘suffocated’ by the ‘corruption’ in Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s party. He also claimed AAP councillors had been instructed to create a ruckus during MCD House meetings; there was chaos today too, with visuals showing BJP councillors shouting slogans as the House prepared for a third vote.
The ruckus prompted the House to be adjourned for a while.
When the House did not resume at its scheduled time, irate BJP councillors raised chants of ‘apni ghadi sahi karao, Mayor madam sadan mey aao’, or ‘set your watch right, madam Mayor come to the House’, as they waited for proceedings to resume.
They were also seen greeting Sehrawat in the chamber of the House and flashing victory signs to welcome him into their camp.
A fresh vote is being held to elect six members of the MCD’s standing committee – the civic body’s highest decision-making body – on the order of Mayor Shelly Oberoi, who herself was voted to the position yesterday, after three previous attempts ended in fisticuffs between the AAP and the BJP over allowing nominated members voting rights.
Oberoi secured 150 votes and the AAP’s Aaley Md Iqbal was elected as her deputy.
The AAP ended the BJP’s nearly 15-year-rule in the Delhi civic body in December; the party won 134 of 250 wards, with the BJP claiming 104 and the Congress limited to nine.