MCD House to reconvene to hold standing committee members election

New Delhi: The MCD House will reconvene on Friday to make another bid to hold election of members of the municipal corporation’s standing committee, a day after it was adjourned following a protracted pandemonium triggered by clashes between the AAP and BJP councillors.

The proceedings to conduct the election for picking members of the committee -- the highest decision-making body of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) -- had begun around 6.15 pm on Wednesday, hours after AAP's Shelly Oberoi was elected as Delhi's new mayor.

However, the sitting, punctuated with over a dozen adjournments, vociferous protests by BJP members, high-voltage drama and high-decibel sloganeering, spilled over to the next day, until the mayor adjourned it for the day.

Several members of the BJP and the AAP on Wednesday night had exchanged blows and hurled plastic bottles at each other in the chamber of the MCD House, and the situation turned uglier on Thursday morning, even as the stalemate over the election continued.

Videos of commotion in the chamber of the House have since gone viral on social media. A video shared by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) showed BJP councillor Rekha Gupta and other councilors standing on the dias and throwing away things kept there.

BJP leaders, on the other hand, have shared a video claiming party councilor Pramod Gupta was slapped by AAP councilor Devender Kumar.

The whole incident was triggered by bitter arguments between the members of the two parties over the mode of conducting the election to the six members of the Standing Committee.

The BJP has been demanding fresh voting citing violation of ballot secrecy by AAP councilors carrying mobile phones while casting their votes during the initial phase of the election to pick the panel members, before the House was disrupted.

In a report submitted to Mayor Shelly Oberoi and Municipal Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti, the secretary of the civic body has recommended fresh elections, saying the "sanctimony" of the election process has been "badly bruised".

He had sought time for printing of new set of ballot papers, saying traditionally the elections were held with a stock of 300 ballot papers.

The election to the posts of mayor and deputy mayor of the MCD on Wednesday was conducted after three previous failed attempts and over two months after the high-stakes municipal polls, and following a Supreme Court order.

On February 17, the top court had ordered issuing of a notice within 24 hours for convening the first meeting of the MCD to fix the date of elections for the mayor, the deputy mayor and the members of the standing committee of the civic body.

Seven candidates are in the fray for the six members of the standing committee.

Aamil Malik of Sri Ram Colony ward, Raminder Kaur from Fateh Nagar ward, Mohini Jeenwal of Sundar Nagari ward and Sarika Chaudhary of Daryaganj ward are AAP's candidates.

Kamaljeet Sehrawat from Dwarka-B ward and Pankaj Luthra from Jhilmil ward are BJP's candidates.

Independent councillor Gajender Singh Daral, who later joined the BJP, is also a candidate.