Delhi Mayor polls: Elected members, aldermen take oath amid heavy security

The Delhi Municipal House reconvened on Tuesday amid high security and began the process of delivering oaths to elected and nominated councillors. Presiding officer Satya Sharma of the BJP gave the oath to the alderman, the members chosen by the Lt Governor, before delivering the oath to the elected councillors at the Civic Centre here. Shweta Daman Khatri of the AAP was the first elected member to take the oath of office.

Congress has underlined that its nine councillors would not vote in the election. The House’s proceedings resumed nearly three weeks after the procedure to elect the new mayor was called off on January 6 due to contentious scenes between the AAP and the BJP.

Ahead of the session visuals from the House showed heavy deployment of security personnel, including in the well of the House. Sharing a video, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said: “Today BJP has brought force with sticks to take possession of Municipal Corporation. Have you seen this in any House?”

The mayoral election was called off earlier this month after a spat between nominated councillors and their elected colleagues about who would take the oath first.

The Aam Aadmi Party, which won the MCD elections with 134 seats, has nominated Shelly Oberoi for mayor, while the BJP has nominated Rekha Gupta, a three-term councillor from Shalimar Bagh.
The AAP has nominated Aaley Mohammad Iqbal for deputy mayor, while the BJP has nominated Ram Nagar councillor Kamal Bagri.

In addition, elections for six members of the House Standing Committee will be held today.
Seven people are vying for six positions on the Standing Committee.

Amil Malik, Raminder Kaur, Mohini Jeenwal, and Sarika Chowdhary have been nominated by the Aam Aadmi Party, while Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Gajendra Daral, and Pankaj Luthra have been nominated by the BJP.

Seven Delhi Lok Sabha MPs, three Rajya Sabha MPs, and 14 MLAs are among those nominated with the agreement of the Speaker of the Delhi Legislative Assembly and will vote. On January 6, there was nearly an hour of high drama in the assembly as Delhi prepared to pick its first single mayor in ten years after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi was consolidated last year.

The AAP, which ousted the Bharatiya Janata Party’s 15-year rule in the MCD elections on December 4, has accused Delhi LG VK Saxena of wrongdoing in appointing BJP councillor Satya Sharma as MCD presiding officer and 10 aldermen to the civic body.

Civic elections were held in Delhi on December 4, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 134 wards, the BJP 104, and the Congress nine seats in the 250-member municipal body.