The AAP and BJP on Friday traded allegations over the postponement of mayoral polls, accusing each other of being anti-Dalit, following an uproar in the MCD House meeting that was adjourned amid heavy sloganeering. Polls to elect the mayor and deputy mayor were postponed late Thursday night due to the non-appointment of the presiding officer for the elections. The third term of the mayoral polls is reserved for a Dalit candidate.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House session witnessed an uproar over the postponement of the mayoral elections that were slated to be held on Friday, with both AAP and BJP councillors raising slogans against each other before the proceedings of the House began. BJP councillors surrounded the mayor's seat and raised slogans demanding the presence of Mayor Shelly Oberoi who was running late for the meeting.
AAP councillors initially raised slogans against the BJP near the Ambedkar statue at the corporation headquarters. Later, they reached the House and continued raising slogans against the opposition party calling them "Dalit Virodhi BJP". The AAP has called the BJP "anti-Dalit", saying it was trying to ensure that a candidate from the reserved category does not become the mayor of Delhi. The councillors of the two parties raised slogans against each other for about an hour.
After Mayor Oberoi reached the House, she accused Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena of "murdering the Constitution" and using the judicial custody of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as an "excuse" to stall the mayoral polls. The mayor then adjourned the meeting of the MCD House.
“The anti-Dalit Bharatiya Janata Party is once again murdering the Constitution. It is very sad that the way dictatorial government is running in the entire country, Delhi and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The people of Delhi have also come to know how they want to govern every time through dictatorship,” she said.
"Today the mayoral elections were supposed to take place. The Election Commission had also given its permission on April 24. But yesterday, the file for appointing the presiding officer was sent to the Lt Governor bypassing the elected government. LG sahab's response to the file that he does not have the power to appoint the presiding officer in the absence of inputs from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is shallow politics," Oberoi said. She said the BJP has hatched a conspiracy to postpone the elections. "If this is not the murder of democracy, then what is it? Lok Sabha elections (in Delhi) will be held soon. They don't want AAP's candidate to become the mayor before it. "AAP had the mandate as well as the numbers. Our candidates would have won the (mayoral) elections," the mayor said.
Meanwhile, BJP councillors, after the adjournment of the session, were seen dancing to the BJP's campaign song “‘Phir se Modiji ki sarkaar dekhna chahu su’ and danced on the premises of the house.
. The video was shared by several AAP leaders, including the mayor and Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj. They alleged that the BJP was celebrating since AAP's Dalit candidate could not be elected as mayor. "Look at the happiness of BJP councillors that a Dalit did not become the mayor," Atishi captioned her video post on X.
Leader of Opposition in MCD and former Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh called AAP an “anti-Dalit and anti-women party”. “The Aam Aadmi Party itself did not want to hold elections for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor so that the ongoing differences in their party do not become public. If the AAP wanted to conduct elections for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, then they should have completed the entire formalities in a constitutional manner before the announcement of general elections,” he said.
He further alleged that the AAP does not want to follow any constitutional process and does not want to do any work as per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957. He also claimed that similarly the AAP mayor did not allow elections to be held for the posts of Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee.
“There is no restriction on the election process of the Standing Committee, yet the Mayor of Aam Aadmi Party has not appointed any presiding officer to complete the election process and because of the Aam Aadmi Party, the elections of the Standing Committee have not been held yet. Due to which the people of Delhi are suffering the consequences, development work has come to a halt in Delhi because of the Aam Aadmi Party, there are heaps of garbage at various places,” Singh alleged.
AAP councillors initially raised slogans against the BJP near the Ambedkar statue at the corporation headquarters. Later, they reached the House and continued raising slogans against the opposition party calling them "Dalit Virodhi BJP".
The AAP has called the BJP "anti-Dalit", saying it was trying to ensure that a candidate from the reserved category does not become the mayor of Delhi. The councillors of the two parties raised slogans against each other for about an hour.
Senior AAP Leader and MCD incharge Durgesh Pathak questioned the BJP and LG's intention. He asked, “The BJP’s LG should have taken the recommendation from the CM, who has stopped him from taking the recommendation? The CM could have appointed a minister and he would have given the recommendation to the LG. But LG's intentions were already bad. The LG did not send the file of the mayoral election to the minister.”
“The BJP’s LG sent the file to the Chief Secretary through the Secretary of the Urban Development Department and the Chief Secretary sent the file directly to the LG.
The LG did not even try to get the minister's recommendation on the file. It is clear from this that the BJP and LG had already made a complete plan not to conduct the mayoral election.
Because the BJP and LG do not believe in the Constitution of India, they do not believe in the Constitution made by Baba Saheb,” the AAP MCD incharge said, adding that the BJP is anti-dalit and anti-woman.
Stating that the PM wants to change the constitution and wants to remove people’s rights. “They want to remove the rights of the Dalits, backward communities and the minorities by changing the Constitution. Today, without changing the Constitution, MCD elections in Delhi were stopped only on the basis of bullying,” he said.
Senior AAP leader and Delhi Minister Atishi emphasised that BJP and LG revoked the election upon a Dalit individual's ascension to the Mayorship, claiming that it will incite widespread fury among Delhi's populace. She further claimed that the election was cancelled at the BJP's behest.
Elections to the posts of mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi that were slated for April 26 were postponed, with the LG Saxena citing "unprecedented" circumstances where the chief minister is under judicial custody and cannot discharge his constitutionally obligated functions.
The civic body postponed the mayoral polls after the Raj Niwas issued a letter on behalf of Saxena, stating that the appointment of a presiding officer could not be made in the absence of inputs from the chief minister, who is lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with the alleged excise policy linked money laundering scam.
