Delhi mayor election tomorrow; new tussle between L-G and AAP

The tussle between the Delhi lieutenant governor (L-G) and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) further intensified on Thursday after VK Saxena nominated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor Satya Sharma as the presiding officer for the first House meeting on Friday to elect the mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi or MCD.

Reacting to the appointment, the AAP accused the BJP of being hell-bent on destroying all democratic traditions and institutions.

The mayoral poll is slated to take place a month after the counting of votes took place on December 7.

Here are top 10 points on Delhi mayoral poll:

1. The first municipal House after the high-stakes civic poll on December 4 is scheduled to take place on Friday during which all newly elected councillors will take oath and the mayor and the deputy mayor will be elected.

2. A notification read, “She (Satya Sharma, councillor, Ward No.226) will be administered oath/affirmation as per section 32 of the Act, by Santosh Kumar Rai, District Magistrate, New Delhi. The other councillors will be administered oath (affirmation by the Presiding Officer).”

3. After the oath ceremony, the newly constituted civic body will proceed to elect the mayor, as required by section 35 of the Act.

4. The nominees for the post of mayor are – Shelly Oberoi and Ashu Thakur (AAP), and Rekha Gupta (BJP). Oberoi is AAP’s main contender.

5. The nominees for the post of deputy mayor are – Aaley Mohammad Iqbal and Jalaj Kumar (AAP), and Kamal Bagri (BJP).

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

7. AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj tweeted, “It is the tradition that the senior most member of House is nominated as protem Speaker or presiding officer. But BJP is hell bent destroying all democratic traditions and Institutions.”

8. The AAP had bagged 134 wards in the MCD poll and ended the BJP’s 15-year rule in the civic body. The BJP won 104 wards to finish second, while the Congress won nine seats in the 250-member municipal House which will convene on January 6 for the first time after the 2022 polls.

9. This was also the first municipal elections after the redrawing of the wards in the year gone by, the exercise being necessitated after the Centre brought a legislation in Parliament to unify the three local bodies.

10. The unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi came into effect on May 22, with Gyanesh Bharti and Ashwani Kumar taking charge as its municipal commissioner and special officer, respectively.