Politics over the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls have reached a new low as AAP and BJP Councillors exchanged blows with each other on Friday at the Delhi Civic Centre over the election of six members of the MCD standing committee.
Clashes broke out between the Councillors of the two rival parties soon after MCD Mayor Shelly Oberoi stalled the recounting of votes polled in the election for the six-member standing committee of the MCD following objections raised by the AAP.
This was the third day of commotion in the House.
Protesting against the Mayor’s decision to stall the recounting process, BJP councillors started breaking mikes, tearing ballot papers and even damaged the polling booths amid sloganeering.
Oberoi said that one party is ready for recounting, while the other is not.
“So I am stopping the recounting process,” Oberoi said.
Earlier, after polling was held for the all-powerful standing committee, the tussle between the Councilors started over a single vote. After the polls, the Mayor declared one vote as invalid.
Meanwhile, AAP councillor Ashok Kumar Maanu collapsed as clashes broke out between the BJP and AAP councillors.
“They are so shameless that they attacked even women and the Mayor. The BJP goons did this,” Maanu claimed.
The party claimed that Oberoi was also attacked by the ‘BJP goons’. Women security guards escorted her by risking their own lives, AAP claimed.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi alleged that the newly-elected mayor Shelly Oberoi was physically assaulted by a BJP male member in the Civic Centre.
She urged the BJP to stop the “goondaism” in the Civic centre and said that BJP should accept their defeat. While talking to a news agency, Atishi said, “Today BJP showed goondaism in the Civic Centre. A standing committee election was going on. When counting started BJP realised they were losing & they created a ruckus. The mayor was attacked & physically assaulted by a BJP male member.”
Meanwhile, BJP councillor Sharad Kapoor on Friday moved the Delhi High Court, alleging that Mayor Shelly Oberoi did not stick to the rules of not using mobile phones and pens during voting to elect the MCD Standing Committee members on Wednesday.
Kapoor, in his petition, has said that the Mayor “defied every constitutional and statutory norm” and “betrayed the mandate of the Constitution by allowing mobile phones and pens in the election proceedings”.
The petitioner has also sought to declare the February 22 polls as null and void.
A single-judge bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav listed the matter for hearing on February 27.
Kapoor said that he, along with others, had staged a protest against the Mayor’s act.