MCD Mayor Election 2023 | HIGHLIGHTS

Hours after the mayor Election, ruckus emerged in the MCD house over the election of members to the standing committee. 

Delhi's Newly elected Mayor Shelly Oberor alleged that BJP Councillors tried to attack her while she was conducting the Standing Committee elections. She tweeted, 'BJP Councillors just tried to attack me while I was conducting the Standing Committee elections, as per Supreme Court orders! This is the extent of BJP’s Gundagardi that they are trying to attack a woman Mayor.'

Proceedings have once again begun to elect the members of the standing committee to the Delhi Municipal Corporation.

However, the BJP councilors are creating a ruckus demanding that fresh voting for 6 members should take place.

According to the mayor, the MCD secretary had a total of 300 ballots, out of which 55 ballots were used, at present only 245 ballots are left, so the re-election of 250 members cannot be held in 245 ballots. 

Hitting out at the BJP, Delhi CM Kejriwal said, "The goons lost, the public won. In the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the people of Delhi won and hooliganism was defeated. Congratulations to the people of Delhi on Shelly Oberoi being elected mayor."

BJP Councillors chant 'Hanuman Chalisa' and raise slogans of 'Jai Sri Ram' over delay in the election of members to the Standing Committee of MCD. 

AAP's Aaley Mohammad Iqbal has been elected as Deputy Mayor of Delhi, officials said.

Mohammad Iqbal received 147 votes while BJP's Kamal Bagri got 116 votes.

AAP's candidate received around 150 votes, while the Bharatiya Janata Party could only manage to get 116 votes in their bag. 

Voting concludes for Delhi's Mayoral election after over 2 hours. A total of 10 nominated MPs, 14 nominated MLAs and 241 elected Councilors out of 250 voted.

The Municipal House, which began half an hour late at around 11.30 am, is holding election to the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee. Pro-tem presiding officer Satya Sharma said, "I appeal to all to maintain order in the House".

The proceedings of the municipal House began on Wednesday to elect the new mayor of Delhi, the exercise taking place after much delay since the high-stakes civic polls. The mayoral election is being conducted following a Supreme Court order after three failed attempts earlier to hold the polls.

There are a total of 274 valid votes for the mayoral election. However, 9 Congress councillors are not participating in voting process as the grand old party has boycotted the mayoral election. Hence, a total of 265 votes are expected to be cast in today's election. Either of the two mayoral candidates needs 134 votes to win.

BJP MPs Gautam Gambhir, Manoj Tiwari and Ramesh Bidhuri have not yet arrived at the house.

Earlier, four BJP MPs and three AAP MPs, along with all 14 nominated MLAs, cast their votes. 

In the last election, the presiding officer had barred Akhilesh Pati Tripathi and fellow AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha from voting on the grounds that both were accused of corruption.

After much wrangling between the ruling AAP and BJP councillors and ruckus in the MCD, the much-delayed Delhi mayoral elections are underway today.  The polls will see the national capital get a new civic chief after three failed attempts over the last two months. The polling will take place following an intervention from the Supreme Court, which ruled that the election to the Mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi shall be conducted first. The apex court's direction came on a plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party, seeking the mayoral polls at the earliest. The top court further ruled that the aldermen (nominated persons) would have no right to vote in the election of the mayor. 

MPs, MLAs are voting presently. The councillors will be allowed to cast their votes thereafter.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala, during a hearing on Friday, directed that the election of the Delhi mayor shall be conducted at the first MCD meet and once elected, the mayor shall preside over the deputy mayor's election. The AAP had emerged as a clear winner in the December 4 polls, bagging 134 wards and ending the BJP's 15-year rule in the civic body. The BJP won 104 wards to finish second, while the Congress won nine seats in the 250-member municipal House.

The electoral college for the election of mayor comprises the 250 elected councillors, seven Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi and 14 MLAs. The Delhi Assembly Speaker has nominated 13 AAP and one BJP member to the House. The total number of votes in the mayoral polls are 274. The numbers game favours the AAP, which has 150 votes against the BJP's 113.

However, the remaining budget is expected to be passed by the House before March 31, as required, since the new deliberative wing led by a mayor is likely to come into place on February 22. As per the direction from the Lt Governor, the House that will convene on Wednesday will be a reconvening of the adjourned first House on January 6. Both the BJP and AAP members had held each other responsible for the derailment of the proceedings.

The municipal House in Delhi then convened again on February 6 as the city hoped to get a mayor. It, however, failed to elect a mayor for the third time in a row following ruckus over the decision to allow aldermen to vote, even as the AAP had alleged a "planned conspiracy" by the BJP to stall the process and said it would move the Supreme Court to seek a "court-monitored" election.
The petitioner, Oberoi, had moved the apex court on February 7.

A month after the municipal polls, the House had convened for the first time on January 6. It was adjourned following acrimonious exchanges between members of the BJP and the AAP. The second and third meetings on January 24 and February 6 also failed to carry out the exercise, and were both adjourned without electing a mayor, triggering much political bickering among parties in the two months since the civic polls.

The crisis also impacted the annual budget proceedings and the schedule of taxes for 2023-24 was passed by the Special Officer of the MCD on February 15, since the deliberative wing has not come into place. According to the norms, the schedule of taxes has to be passed by the House before or on February 15.

In a shot in the arm for the ruling AAP, the apex court also held that the members nominated to the MCD by the Lt Governor cannot vote to elect the mayor. According to the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, 1957, the mayor and the deputy mayor are to be elected in the very first session of the House after the civic polls. However, it has been over two months since the municipal elections were held on December 4.

The exercise to hold elections to the top post will be carried out after three failed attempts. Last week, Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena gave his nod to convene the municipal House for holding the mayoral election following the apex court order.

The top court on February 17 (Friday) ordered the issuance of a notice within 24 hours for convening the first meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to fix the date of elections for the mayor, the deputy mayor, and the members of the standing committee of the civic body. The court issued the order after hearing a plea moved by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi, who had sought early conduct of the election.

After much delay since the high-stakes civic polls in Delhi, the stage is now all set for the election of a new mayor today (February 22) following a Supreme Court order. The municipal house is slated to begin at around 11:00 am during which the election to the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee will be held.