The BJP’s Sundar Singh Tanwar was nominated to the 18th, and final, seat of the Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Standing Committee on Friday afternoon, following an election that featured only his party’s councillors. Tanwar got 115 votes – the number of BJP councillors in the House.
Tanwar’s win – which will almost certainly be challenged in court – means the BJP now has control over the Standing Committee, which is widely seen as the real power behind the municipal body. The BJP now has 10 of its 18 members and can select the Chair.
The AAP has 125 councillors and, had the party voted today (and providing none of its votes would have been poached by the BJP) it would most likely have won the election, and control of the Standing Committee, which takes most of the municipal body’s financial decisions.
The Congress, which has nine councillors, abstained from voting.
All of this comes after the Aam Aadmi Party – last night – boycotted voting in a late-night session summoned by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, the centre’s rep in the national capital.
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This morning ex-Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia once again rejected the “illegal election” scheduled for 1 pm, and said, “There is nothing today”. Shortly afterwards party boss Arvind Kejriwal said “it is written in the law… only the Mayor has the right to call a sitting of the House”.
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“We live in a democracy. It is written in the law that whenever the House is called, 72 hours will be given. Every councillor needs time. There seems to be something wrong with their intentions. There seems to be a conspiracy to do something wrong, that is why they are doing all this…” Mr Kejriwal said.
On Thursday Mayor Oberoi said, “I have written a letter to the Commissioner (of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi) that the election to be held today is unconstitutional and illegal.”
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But Mr Saxena sought to overturn that order, demanding MCD Commissioner Ashwini Kumar “submit a report of conduct of elections… by 10 pm today” and that the Deputy Mayor oversee proceedings if Ms Oberoi declares herself unavailable for any reason.
This election is the latest in a long line of bitter squabbles between the AAP and Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor, VK Saxena. The vacancy was created after the BJP’s Kamaljeet Sehrawat quit; she had been elected to the Lok Sabha from the West Delhi seat in the April-June election.
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