MCD’s 2nd attempt to pick Mayor today

The seat of Delhi’s civic body is on Tuesday likely to be the stage of another chaotic attempt to elect a mayor, three weeks after the first meeting of the new House ended in bedlam, as clashes and fist fights between councillors from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) put a dark mark on what is usually a routine process.

The AAP — which won December’s municipal polls, securing 134 seats in the 250-member House — will look to elect its mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi and deputy contender Aaley Mohammad Iqbal. The BJP, which won 105 wards, has fielded Rekha Gupta for mayor and Kamal Bagri as her deputy.

Besides the 250 councillors, 14 Delhi MLAs, and 10 Delhi parliamentarians form the electoral college for the mayor.

Of the 274 voters, the AAP has the backing of 150 members and the BJP 113. The Congress has nine councillors and two others are independents.

However, the sticking point, as it was during the first House meeting, is likely to be the administering of oaths to 10 nominated members, known as aldermen, who don’t have voting rights, but may swing the balance of power in a key body that controls the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) finances.

On January 6, the Civic Centre descended into chaos as councillors from both parties exchanged blows, jostled, climbed atop tables, and even attempted to use furniture as weapons, prompting the presiding officer to delay the mayoral election — a first since 1957.

The brawl began after the lieutenant governor (LG)-appointed presiding officer, BJP councillor Satya Sharma, began the session by administering oaths to the aldermen, a process that the AAP alleged was a break from tradition, where elected councillors are sworn in first. Even then, despite the mayhem, four aldermen were administered oaths.

Aldermen will be sworn in before councillors on Tuesday as well, Sharma confirmed.

“The aldermen will be administered oaths first when the House begins, followed by the elected councillors,” she said. “I hope that all the parties will cooperate and let the House function and mayoral elections be held smoothly.”

However, according to the AAP’s MCD in-charge and Rajendra Nagar MLA Durgesh Pathak, the agenda list shows that councillors will be sworn in first, followed by aldermen. The mayor and deputy mayor will be elected thereafter, with the six members of the standing committee to follow.

“Today MCD has also accepted that the AAP was absolutely right, it has finally issued the agenda list by accepting our demands. We have been saying from day one that we have no objection if elections are held on the basis of the Constitution and DMC [Delhi Municipal Corporation] Act. We request the BJP to cooperate fully in the election process by following the Constitution,” said Pathak.

The agenda list prepared by the municipal secretary lists four items, beginning with the administration of oath to councillors and aldermen; election of mayor, election of deputy mayor and six members of standing committee.

“It is up to the presiding officer to decide whether the elected councillors will be administered oath first or the aldermen. The agenda list does not clearly mention who will go first,” said a municipal official aware of the process.

While the AAP alleges that the BJP will try to get the alderman to vote even in the mayoral elections, the BJP says that once AAP gets its mayor the party will not let the alderman take oath due to a dispute over who should nominate them.

A day before the January 6 session, Sharma’s nomination also led to a row between the AAP and BJP. Delhi’s ruling party alleged that her nomination, by LG VK Saxena, broke away from the tradition of appointing the senior-most councillor as presiding officer.

Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva on Monday accused the AAP of igniting the brawl during the first meeting.

“We held a meeting of our councillors recently to discuss the oath-taking. We want the oath to be administered so that the MCD House can function. The AAP created a ruckus last time. Despite winning 134 wards, they are nervous about their councillors because there is a split in the party.”

To be sure, the anti-defection law does not apply in the mayoral elections, and councillors are free to vote for a candidate irrespective of their political affiliations.

Delhi’s civic body has been without a mayor for eight months now, since the terms of the erstwhile three corporations ended. Municipal polls were initially slated to be held in April last year, but were postponed after the Centre decided to unify the three civic bodies, in a bid to settle the corporation’s finances.

Since then, MCD has been run by a special officer and commissioner, both of whom have been appointed by the Centre.