The polls to elect Delhi’s mayor were stalled for the third time after councillors from the Aam Aadmi Party opposed the presiding officer’s decision to allow aldermen to vote, PTI reported.
Aldermen are nominated councillors who have special knowledge of municipal administration and are tasked with assisting the House in decisions of public importance. They are appointed by the lieutenant governor.
The Aam Aadmi Party has claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to wrest control of the civic body despite losing the elections. It has alleged that the nominated councillors are inclined to support the saffron party.
On Monday, soon after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi House assembled at 11.30 am, Presiding Officer Satya Sharma announced that elections to the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and Standing Committee members will be held simultaneously.
“Aldermen will be allowed to vote in the elections for mayor, deputy mayor and Standing Committee members,” Sharma said, according to PTI.
The announcement led to protests from AAP councillors, who termed the move illegal.
Following this, Sharma said that elections cannot be held in such an atmosphere and adjourned the House till the next date. However, leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party remained seated in the House.
Later, Aam Aadmi Party leaders Atishi and Sanjay Singh told reporters that the party will move the Supreme Court seeking its intervention in the mayoral election.
“We will go to the Supreme Court, and we will go today itself so that the mayoral elections can be held in a court-monitored manner,” Atishi said.
The polls to elect Delhi’s mayor had already been deferred on January 6 and January 24.
On January 26, the Aam Aadmi Party had moved the Supreme Court demanding that the mayoral election in Delhi is conducted in a time-bound manner.
“The people of Delhi gave a majority to the Aam Aadmi Party in the MCD elections but the BJP, with its dirty politics, is now allowing the administration to be out in place,” party spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj had alleged earlier.
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