New Delhi: A fight ensued between BJP and AAP members in the House of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) here on Friday. Members belonging to both parties were indulged in fisticuffs amid bedlam after Mayor Shelly Oberoi declared one vote invalid in the election to six members of a key Municipal Committee. Councillor Ashok Manu collapsed amid the chaos and was rushed to a nearby hospital.
AAP MLA Atishi alleged that BJP members attacked the Delhi Mayor when they sensed their party would lose the poll. BJP councillor Pankaj Luthra alleged that it was AAP's fault that led to the chaos. He is one of the candidates for the Standing Committee election. In a video, Aam Aadmi Party and BJP councillors are seen hurling water bottles and apples at each other inside the House. In another video, women councillors are seen hitting each other on the floor of the House.
The election process for the six members of the Standing Committee began at around 11 am and concluded at 2:30 pm. The counting began 10 minutes later. The counting process went on for more than two hours. Mayor Shelly Oberoi asked members that the result will be declared without the invalid vote, a move that was opposed by BJP members. The Mayor's decision led to the House descending into chaos as councillors from the BJP and the AAP started pushing one another amid shouting. In a video, a few councillors were seen with their kurtas torn.
Also read MCD Standing Committee polls: AAP accuses BJP of stealing Ballot box
Earlier, ahead of the election of six members of the MCD Standing Committee, Delhi MCD House witnessed sloganeering by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors. In a jolt to the Aam Aadmi Party two days after it won the polls for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the MCD, Bawana councillor Pawan Sehrawat joined the BJP on Friday.
The switchover happened shortly before the polling to elect members of the MCD's Standing Committee on Friday. Earlier, on Thursday, the House was adjourned for the 13th time since it convened post the MCD polls on December 4, last year, after councillors of the ruling AAP and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party came to blows over polling to elect members of the Standing Committee.
The MCD session was adjourned till 10 am on Friday. Amid the bedlam in the House on Thursday, Rekha Gupta, the BJP mayoral candidate who lost to AAP's Shelly Oberoi in Wednesday's polls, allegedly broke the wooden panel where a microphone was mounted, while fellow party member Amit Nagpal allegedly tore off the ballot paper and threw the ballot box. (With agency inputs)
