While things did not come to a chaotic pass as they had exactly a month ago - the first Municipal Corporation Delhi (MCD) House meeting on January 6 descended into a brawl among members - the developments on Monday saw allegations and counter-allegations of poaching and violations of constitutional norms.
At the heart of Monday's controversy was the decision by the presiding officer, Satya Sharma, to allow nominated members, known as aldermen, to vote in the election for the mayor. Such members have not voted in the mayor or deputy mayor elections in the past and the law the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act prohibits their participation.
"Allowing nominated councillors to vote is illegal and unconstitutional. This is open hooliganism. We will take the matter to the Supreme Court and we are hopeful that the apex court will protect the Constitution and laws made as per the Constitution," said Delhi's deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia, adding that the BJP's strategy was to hold up the election process so that the civic body could be run illegally through bureaucrats”.
Two other decisions by Sharma were protested by AAP: She ordered that the elections for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and the six standing committee members will be held simultaneously, and directed two AAP MLAs to leave the chambers because they were ostensibly ineligible to vote due to their convictions in legal cases.
Sharma told HT that all her decisions were either in accordance with the high court orders and the Constitution, or were the prerogative of a presiding officer. We will accept whatever directions issues by the court on all these three issues,” Sharma said.
This story is from the February 07, 2023 edition of Hindustan Times.
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This story is from the February 07, 2023 edition of Hindustan Times.
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