Aam Aadmi Party national convener and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday alleged that the BJP has wrongly bagged the last seat of the standing committee in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Friday.
While taking part in short duration discussion in the Delhi Assembly here today, he said that according to Delhi Municipal Corporation rules only the elected Mayor can convene a meeting of the house in the corporation and also conduct the elections. However, the former Delhi CM alleged that the Lieutenant Governor changed the rule and directed an additional commissioner of the MCD to conduct the polls.
He also claimed that a notice has to be sent to every councilor 72 hours before the meeting of the house, and alleged that this rule was overlooked and only messages were sent to the councilors through social media messaging App, while some of the councilors were even out of station.
Meanwhile, the AAP and Congress councilors in the MCD on Friday boycotted the election, and as a result, the BJP now has 10 members out of the total 18 in the standing committee, after their candidate Sunder Singh won the poll securing 115 votes. This vacancy in the committee arose due to the resignation of Kamaljeet Sehrawat, as she had been elected as a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha). The BJP candidate Singh got elected as the Sixth member in the Standing Committee from the House, which is the highest decision making body of the MCD.
AAP chief said that what the saffron party did in the MCD was wrong, as they overlooked the Mayor, by leaving aside the elected representative.
Meanwhile, Mayor Dr. Shelly Oberoi on Friday said she has declared the election of the 6th member of the Standing Committee on Friday as null and void, calling it illegal and unconstitutional. She alleged that the BJP has repeatedly tried to run the Municipal Corporation House in an unconstitutional manner, and the order issued late on Thursday night regarding the elections is completely unconstitutional. “As the Mayor, it is my responsibility to ensure that the election of the sixth member of the Standing Committee is conducted in a fair and transparent manner,” she said.
“I have written a letter to the MCD Commissioner and instructed that today’s election is completely illegal. On Thursday, in the House, I have fixed October 5 as the date for holding the election of the Standing Committee and this election will be held on October 5 only,” Oberoi added. In fact, she termed the order issued on Thursday regarding elections as illegal and also a gross violation of the statutory scheme of the DMC Act and the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Procedure and Conduct of Business) Regulations, 1958, apart from being contrary to the touchstone of a fair democratic process, she added in her communication to the MCD commissioner regarding conduct of election to one member of the standing committee.