new Delhi: The first municipal house after the December 4 Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections is scheduled to take place on Friday, during which all the newly elected councilors will take oath and the mayor and deputy mayor will be elected. After the oath ceremony, the newly formed civic body will proceed to elect the mayor, as per section 35 of the Act.
However, the Delhi Congress has said that it will not participate in the mayoral election of the civic body to be held on January 6. Delhi Congress chief Anil Chowdhary said the Delhi unit of the Congress has unanimously decided not to extend support to the Aam Aadmi Party. Or BJP in the election of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Leader of the House in Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
He said, “Delhiites elected Congress corporators, voted for them to raise issues affecting them and work for their welfare, not to fulfill the Patidar agenda of AAP and BJP. Our corporators before voting will walk out of the house.” He further said that the Congress will fight to protect the interests of the people.
“Through secret ballot, the Congress elected three councilors to lead the party in the MCD. Nazia Danish will be the leader of the party in the MCD, Sheetal will be her deputy and Shagufta Chowdhary will be the chief whip,” Chowdhury said.
Significantly, AAP has fielded first-time corporator Shaili Oberoi from East Patel Nagar for the post of mayor, while corporator Ale Mohammad Iqbal from Chandni Mahal ward will contest for the post of deputy mayor. On the other hand, BJP has fielded Rekha Gupta and Kamal Bagdi as its candidates for the election to the posts of mayor and deputy mayor respectively. Gupta is a three-time corporator from Shalimar Bagh and Bagdi was elected for the first time from Ram Nagar.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena named a BJP leader as the pro-tem speaker to preside over the mayoral election to be held on Friday, triggering a power tussle between Saxena and the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP. The battle intensified.
The AAP, led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had won 134 wards in the MCD elections, ending the BJP’s 15-year rule in the civic body. The BJP finished second by winning 104 wards, while the Congress won nine seats in the 250-member municipal house, which will meet on January 6 for the first time after the 2022 elections.
This was also the first municipal election after the redrawing of wards in the previous year, an exercise necessitated after the Center brought in a law in Parliament to merge the three local bodies.
The Unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi came into existence on 22 May, with Gyanesh Bharti and Ashwani Kumar taking charge as Municipal Commissioner and Officer on Special Duty, respectively.