Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia on Thursday addressed a press conference and accused the BJP of "murdering" democracy in the MCD by forcing a standing committee member election to take place late in the night, despite adjournment of the House meeting of the civic body.
Manish Sisodia claimed that Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, who is abroad, instructed the commissioner of MCD to hold the election by 10 PM on Thursday.
"Tonight, on the orders of PM Narendra Modi, BJP is killing democracy in the Delhi Municipal Corporation. The election of the standing committee member was to be held in the Delhi Municipal Corporation today. Mayor Shelly Oberoi tried to conduct the election for the Standing Committee but there was uproar in the House and it had to be adjourned...The Mayor adjourned the House till 5 October and decided that now the meeting would be held again on 5 October for the election of the Standing Committee," he said.
Sisodia went on to say that at 8:30 pm, Delhi LG wrote a letter to the Commissioner MCD and said that within 1.5 hours that is by 10:00 pm, the election of the standing committee of MCD should be completed. "Delhi LG is in America, but he has written a letter from there and has told the Commissioner that the election of MCD should be conducted immediately at night at any cost," he said.
"We were thinking what is the motive of the BJP, then we understood what the real game is. An employee of the Municipal Corporation told us that while the councillors of AAP and Congress have left the House, BJP has kept its councillors sitting with its chairman and MPs near the Commissioner in the MCD House. All the councillors of the BJP are sitting there right now. They knew beforehand that Delhi LG would write a letter, and the commissioner's orders were coming by 10 pm. They knew everything beforehand, that's why everyone is standing there," he said.
Sisodia demanded the LG withdraw the order, and threatened legal action in the matter by his party.
He said the BJP was doing a repeat of the Chandigarh mayoral poll, by trying to conduct an election in the absence of AAP councillors.
Even though all AAP and Congress councillors left the Civic Centre MCD office after the House meeting was adjourned , the BJP councillors remained stationed there waiting for the election, Sisodia claimed.
