Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal blasted the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday after Sunder Singh was elected to the last vacant seat on the Municipal Corporation of Delhi standing committee. Singh polled 115 votes, while Aam Aadmi Party candidate Nirmala Kumari polled no votes since both the Congress and AAP boycotted the election. With this victory, the BJP has a majority on the panel with 10 members against AAP’s eight.
Kejriwal said the election process was illegitimate: “According to rules, only the mayor can call a meeting of the MCD House, but the lieutenant governor amended this order and asked an additional commissioner to call it.” He also said it could not be termed as an election and that “BJP resorted to hooliganism.”
He added that due process was not followed as a notice for such a meeting had to be sent to all councilors 72 hours in advance, which has not happened, PTI reported.
The vacancy occurred following the election of BJP councilor Kamaljeet Sehrawat as the Lok Sabha MP from West Delhi. Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi termed the election “unconstitutional” at a news conference and said AAP councilors would not participate.
MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar issued an order to hold the standing committee election on September 27 at 1 pm. The notification issued by the MCD said,
“The election for the lone vacancy was scheduled to be held on September 26 at 2:00 pm, but it was adjourned to October 5 by Mayor Oberoi.”.
Following his win, BJP’s Sunder Singh thanked the party’s central leadership for extending support. “AAP also filed the nomination, but perhaps they were not very confident in their councilors and decided to avoid the election.”
Singh added,
“Everyone was allowed to participate, yet they chose not to attend. The Presiding Officer has conducted a free and fair election, and I won.”
MCD House Leader of Opposition Raja Iqbal Singh said it was a victory for democracy and AAP had run away from the electoral process for fear of losing. He said,
“AAP is good at deception; they can knock at the court’s doors, and the court keeps sending them to cleaners.”
