Guwahati: Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) meeting was adjourned for a sixth time as AAP and BJP members continued to exchange insults after reconvening early on Thursday morning.
The fifth adjournment of the MCD house since Wednesday. With the intense sloganeering and mayhem, the residence experienced multiple disturbances. According to the pictures, things got so hectic that Councilors started tossing voting boxes into the well. Some were observed pushing one another, and others were spotted fighting.
When the BJP claimed that during the secret vote, the council members were allegedly photographing the ballots through their mobile devices, which is a violation of the secret ballot, mayhem broke out during the election for the members of the standing committee. The BJP has since urged that the votes cast be disregarded and that new elections be held.
While the house was adjourned, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj hit out against BJP and said, “BJP councillors are trying to postpone the standing committee polls. Supreme Court had clearly said that all elections should happen in the first sitting. So, we want the elections today only, whether it happens at night or in the morning.”
He added saying, “BJP deliberately wants to conduct the whole election of standing committee again. In this way, the process will never end. The MCD Secretary has also said that they only have 245 ballots, and we can’t conduct the whole election again.”
Hitting back at the AAP, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla called it an “Anarchist Acrimonious Party”.
“AAP = Anarchist Acrimonious Party. Fearing defeat and cross-voting; you engineer every attempt to sabotage and steamroll rules and laws! Then play the victim card! If this is how affairs will be conducted on Day 1 by the Mayor people of Delhi better brace themselves,” he said on Twitter.
The mayor of Delhi Shelly Oberoi said earlier during the altercation that BJP council members had attempted to harm her during the Standing Committee elections.
Taking on Twitter, Shelly Oberoi alleged, “BJP Councillors just tried to attack me while I was conducting the Standing Committee elections, as per Supreme Court orders! This is the extent of BJP’s Gundagardi that they are trying to attack a woman Mayor.”
After receiving 150 votes on Wednesday, Shelly Oberoi was chosen as the new mayor of Delhi earlier in the day.
“I assure you all that I will run this House in a constitutional manner. I expect you all will maintain the dignity of the House and cooperate in its smooth functioning,” Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi said as soon as she was elected as the mayor earlier in the day.
Terming it a “huge responsibility”, the newly elected mayor expressed gratitude to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. “Today, I got an opportunity to serve the people of Delhi”.
“Goondagardi (Hooliganism) has been defeated,” Shelly Oberoi took potshots at the ruling BJP.
“Truth has prevailed. Today, it has been proven that the people of Delhi have won. It is not the victory of AAP. It is a victory of democracy. It is a victory of the people of Delhi,” Oberoi said.
Once the Supreme Court decided that the Delhi Mayor election should take place, voting started at 11.30 am. Also, the court decided that the aldermen (designated councillors) would not be allowed to vote.
Aaley Mohammad Iqbal, an AAP candidate, was chosen as Delhi’s new deputy mayor later in the day.
By receiving 147 votes to Kamal Bagri’s 116, he was able to defeat the BJP candidate.
The Aam Aadmi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party’s political squabbles contributed to the failure of the last three efforts to elect the mayor. They initially met on January 6, then again on January 24, and finally on February 6.
Delhi held municipal elections on December 4, and the results were made public on December 7. Out of 250 seats, the Aam Aadmi Party won 134.