Politics
High Drama Unfolds as Delhi MCD Panel Election Scheduled for Today
High Drama Unfolds as Delhi MCD Panel Election Scheduled for Today
VK Saxena, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, has mandated that the municipal commissioner arrange for an election to fill the remaining seat on the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) standing committee. This election is scheduled for Friday at 1 pm and will be overseen by Additional Commissioner Jitender Yadav.
Originally, Saxena wanted the election held on Thursday. However, Mayor Shelly Oberoi postponed it after a tumultuous security screening of council members; they must now wait until October 5. The BJP currently has nine seats on the standing committee while the AAP controls eight; there were 18 total positions before Kamaljeet Sehrawat (a BJP councilor) resigned to take office as MP from West Delhi.
MCD Issues Notice for Election
Ashwani Kumar, the MCD Commissioner, issued a notice to hold an election on Friday in response to LG’s orders. This move was met with opposition from Mayor Oberoi, who said any elections before October 5th would be considered “unconstitutional and illegal.” Despite this statement by their leader, deputy mayors and other top officials from within the Delhi Municipal Corporation had nothing to say about it; they remained silent during discussions around these points.
After not meeting for almost two years, there is simply no way important decisions can just resume like normal claims. Lieutenant Governor further explained the delay when noting how essential having a functioning standing committee becomes; municipal responsibilities take up quite a bit of time. A democratic body needs to keep working if democracy is going to run smoothly—this view has been put forward strongly once again: maintaining systems that allow people to have their say and need looking after too is simply not good enough; they stop working altogether now and then.
High Drama During Postponed Election
The initial election was canceled on Thursday due to increased tensions inside the MCD. A face-off arose from the municipal secretariat’s call for a ban on mobile phones during voting. BJP councilors obeyed, but AAP members refused; they sat in protest. They said checking for phones and frisking them was an insult. Mayor Oberoi criticized safety steps too, saying, “This goes beyond norms.” This is an attack both on elected people’s dignity as well as democratic practices; never once has something like these steps been tried.”
The deadlock that started in the afternoon went on until late evening, resulting in the deferment of the election. Bharatiya Janata Party members responded by castigating both the mayor and Aam Aadmi Party, raising slogans like “Mayor hosh mein aao (Mayor, come to your senses)” and “Hold the standing committee election.”
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Virendra Sachdeva, BJP’s Delhi chief, requested commissioners for North and East Delhi civic bodies (MCD) to abide by legal procedures as per orders of the Supreme Court on elections. He alleged that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was avoiding polls because its chief, Arvind Kejriwal, apprehended something internally; AAP has been scared of the election from day one. Sachdeva added they would move a contempt petition against AAP’s mayor.
