New Delhi: Delhi government has given its nod for convening the next session of the municipal House on February 16 for holding the election to the post of mayor, official said on Thursday. A senior official of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi said the MCD had sent the proposal suggesting this date on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, sources had claimed that the AAP government had proposed February 13 or 14 as the next date of meeting of the newly elected municipal House. Three successive meetings of the House in last one month were adjourned amid ruckus and commotion over decision to give voting rights to aldermen, without electing mayor, deputy mayor and members of the standing committee of the civic body.
The House was convened for the first time on January 6, after the high-stakes civic polls on December 4, and was adjourned following acrimonious exchanges between members of the BJP and the AAP. The second municipal House held on January 24, was briefly adjourned after the oath-taking ceremony, and was later adjourned till next date by the pro tem presiding officer.
After that the House was adjourned on last Monday again for the third time, a month after the first municipal House. After the House was adjourned on Monday, the AAP had alleged that the mayoral election could not be held as the BJP was "strangulating democracy and the Constitution of India", while the saffron party accused the Aam Aadmi Party of coming out with excuses to stall the mayoral poll and blamed the AAP for the stalemate.
Also read: MCD House fails to elect Delhi mayor third time in a row; AAP to move SC
The AAP had emerged as a clear winner in the December polls, bagging 134 wards and ending the BJP's 15-year rule in the civic body. The BJP won 104 wards to finish second, while the Congress won nine wards in the 250-member municipal House. The civic body in Delhi had 272 wards across its three corporations NDMC, SDMC, and EDMC, which existed from 2012-2022 before being reunified into a sole MCD which formally came into existence on May 22 last year.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, "We welcome any date for mayor election if only the Aam Aadmi Party actually allows the election to take place, but one fails to understand that when the matter is sub judice under hearing on February 13 itself then what is the logic of proposing any date for an election".
The municipal House in Delhi on February 6 had failed to elect a mayor for the third time in a row in a month, following ruckus over the decision to allow aldermen to vote in the mayoral poll, even as the AAP alleged a "planned conspiracy" by the BJP to stall the process. An agitated AAP, which is seeking a "court-monitored" election, moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday over this issue.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought responses of the office of the lieutenant governor, pro tem presiding officer of the MCD Satya Sharma, and others on a plea filed by AAP's mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala said it is issuing notice on the plea and seeking replies by next Monday. (PTI)
