AAP moves Supreme Court with two petitions for Delhi Mayor election

New Delhi:

Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Delhi mayoral candidate Shaili Oberoi on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking that elections to the top post of the civic body be held in a “time-bound manner”. Hearing is likely on Friday. The party has also argued that the law must be followed in not allowing the 10 nominated councilors to vote.

The move comes two days after the mayoral election was stalled for the second time this month amid ruckus in the meeting of the newly-elected Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

The AAP, which won a majority in the MCD polls last month, has alleged favoritism by the stand-in presiding officer, a BJP corporator, and said the BJP wanted to use “illegal means” in the mayoral polls. It sees “a deep-rooted conspiracy” by the BJP through the presiding officer appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, who is appointed by the BJP’s central government.

The BJP, which was thrown out of the MCD after 15 years, claims that the AAP is “scared” as its corporators may not vote for its candidate.

Shaili Oberoi is AAP’s mayoral candidate.

After the postponement on Tuesday – with BJP councilors protesting with placards accusing the AAP of “running away” from the mayoral election – the AAP accused the BJP of engineering chaos to actually stop the election.

The AAP members continued to sit after the adjournment, and the party took a count to underline that it had the numbers.

Earlier on January 6, the first meeting of the new House was also postponed when both AAP and BJP members opposed it. On that day, nominated councilors (‘aldermen’) were sworn in in front of the elected members amid protests from the AAP.

In the MCD elections held in December, AAP won 134 out of 250 wards and BJP got 104 seats.

The petition filed in the Supreme Court by AAP mayoral candidate Shelli Oberoi and party leader Mukesh Goyal has two main points – one, that the new setup should be chosen in a time-bound manner; Two, the aldermen should not be allowed to vote because “the law does not permit it”.

Party spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said, “The people of Delhi gave AAP a majority in the MCD elections, but the BJP, with its dirty politics, is now letting the administration out.”

In the national capital’s multi-tiered governance system, the BJP-led central government exercises key powers through the lieutenant governor; The AAP state government has another set of powers, while civic issues are mostly under the civic body, which the AAP recently wrested from the BJP.

The office of mayor serves five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year reserved for women. This will be the first time in 10 years that the city will have a mayor after the merger of the three mandals of the civic body last year.