Ruckus in Delhi's MCD after delay in mayor polls

Both parties accused each other of being against Dalits, given that the third term of the Delhi mayor is reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate

Chaos gripped Civic Centre on Friday as a meeting of Delhi’s councillors turned into pandemonium and a mudslinging contest between members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the postponement of the city’s mayoral polls a day ago.

BJP and AAP councillors protest in the MCD house. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

Both parties accused each other of being against Dalits, given that the third term of the Delhi mayor is reserved for a Scheduled Caste (SC) candidate, even as the AAP called the delay the “murder of the Constitution” and the BJP argued that the AAP intentionally caused the delay, as councillors danced atop tables, crowded the well of the House and raised pitched slogans in the seat of the Capital’s civic administration.

Eventually, the Civic Centre’s proceedings were adjourned without any business, casting further questions over Delhi’s mayoral elections, which were slated to be held on Friday, but pushed back indefinitely on Thursday after lieutenant governor VK Saxena declined to appoint a presiding officer for the process without inputs from chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been behind bars for more than a month now.

The meeting was due to start at 11am, but was delayed as AAP councillors gathered around the statue of BR Ambedkar in the Civic Centre complex, holding placards and copies of the Constitution. Minutes later, BJP members surrounded the mayor’s chair on the dais, even as swarms of Delhi Police and central security personnel stood guard in the headquarters to keep violence and clashes at bay.

Around 11.25am, BJP members started raising slogans demanding the official proceedings get underway. The sitting eventually began 15 minutes later when AAP members entered the House. However, mayhem struck within seconds, as councillors from both parties climbed on to furniture, while BJP members occupied the mayor’s seat.

Mayor Shelly Oberoi formally initiated proceedings at 11.50am, welcoming 14 new MLAs nominated to the corporation for 2024-25, even as she appealed that councillors take their seats. Oberoi managed to sit on her seat after a lot jostling through the protesting BJP councillors and a female guards formed a ring around her.

She then called the postponement of the mayoral elections “a murder of the Constitution and said the meeting is being adjourned till the next date.

“By making an excuse of the CM’s approval and postponing the elections, LG is murdering the Constitution,” she said. BJP members then resorted to slogans saying the mayor “was running away” from facing the house.

Once the meeting ended, a section of BJP councillors danced in the House and played the party’s campaign songs in the chamber. They brought their own mike and portable speaker, which was used to play these songs, inviting the ire of AAP leaders. Delhi minister and senior AAP leader Atishi shared a clip of the commotion on X, alleging that that BJP councillors were celebrating “because as a Dalit person was not elected mayor.”

The BJP made a similar accusation, adding that the AAP did not complete procedural formalities to ratify the mayoral election because it did not want the polls to be held.

The BJP’s leader of opposition and former Delhi mayor Raja Iqbal Singh said, “AAP did not want to hold elections so that the ongoing differences in their party do not become public. If AAP wanted to conduct elections then they should have completed the formalities in a constitutional manner before the announcement of elections.”

Saxena, in a note to the chief secretary on Thursday, said the latter sent the proposal for the appointment of the presiding officer to the chief minister, but that “his office returned it” on April 22.

LG quoted the chief minister’s office as saying, “As the Chief Minister is presently under JC, the CMO is not in a position to either communicate or put up the file before him for his direction/instructions…”

The AAP’s MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak said: “Who has stopped the LG from taking the CM’s recommendation (for presiding officer)? The CM could have appointed a minister and he would have given the recommendation to the LG... The LG did not send the file to the minister at all”.

According to the rules, the chief secretary has to send the file over the appointment of a presiding officer to the state’s urban development minister, who in turn sends it to the chief minister, after which it is forwarded to the LG for a final approval. However, the AAP has alleged that this process was circumvented and that Delhi chief secretary Naresh Kumar forwarded the file to Saxena, bypassing urban development minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and Kejriwal.

The LG office did not comment on the matter.