Polls to elect the new Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), scheduled for Friday, has been postponed due to non-appointment of presiding officer following a letter on behalf of Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Thursday, stating that he “does not deem it appropriate to exercise his power as administrator to appoint the presiding officer in absence of the inputs from chief minister”. The MCD said even though it got the Election Commission’s nod to hold the mayoral polls, the appointment of the presiding officer has not taken place. Therefore, it may not be possible to conduct the elections for mayor and deputy mayor, the MCD said in its order.
Saxena, in a letter, attributed the reason for the postponement to the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal being in the Tihar jail and said, “Given the current circumstances, this is out of the realm of possibility and any deviation in the process of obtaining such advice would only be questionable. These are peculiar and unprecedented circumstances where the serving Chief Minister is under judicial custody as an under trial prisoner involving a corruption case and therefore cannot discharge his constitutionally obligated functions.”
He said that “after thoughtful consideration of the matter and for upholding the sanctity of aforementioned provision of law and constitution”, he is postponing the appointment of the Presiding Officer. Further, Saxena informed that the incumbent Mayor and Deputy Mayor will continue to hold the offices until the elections are held.
Taking a dig at Bharadwaj, the Lieutenant Governor said, “The Minister (UD) in his aforementioned note to me has also underlined the same and stated that the Chief Minister is under judicial custody and therefore can not be involved in the disposal of the proposal. The Minister has sought to appropriate the decision in this regard, upon himself.”
Meanwhile, the opposition has raised concerns on the postponement and accused the BJP-led Centre of hatching a conspiracy to halt the mayoral polls and oust AAP from the MCD. “The BJP got this election cancelled despite there being permission from the Election Commission. The LG office has cancelled the polls saying he works on the advice of the chief minister. There have been previous instances where he has not followed the aid and advice of the chief minister,” AAP MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak claimed.
The Congress had supported the AAP candidate for Mayor in a bid to fight against BJP united. Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee In charge of MCD Jitender Kumar Kochar said that the LG’s decision to put on hold the election, despite the ECI’s nod, was at the behest of the BJP, fearing a defeat in the MCD with the Capital gearing up for the Lok Sabha elections. “The LG’s decision was an anti-Dalit move as this year, the Mayoral election was for the reserved category candidate, and the decision to postpone the election has hurt the sentiments of the Dalit community,” he said.
The post of the mayor in the second term is reserved for councillor from reserved category. “People of Dalit community are calling for this development. This shows that BJP is anti-Dalit. Even in 2019 when the Lok Sabha polls were on, mayors were elected,” Rajendra Nagar MLA Pathak said.
