New Delhi, Feb 6 (PTI) The municipal House in Delhi is set to convene on Monday to elect a mayor for the city after failing to carry out the exercise in two previous attempts.
This will be the third session of the House after the December 4 municipal polls.
The first two sessions -- held on January 6 and January 24 -- were adjourned by the presiding officer without electing a mayor following a ruckus and acrimonious exchanges between the members of the BJP and the AAP.
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 that convenes after the civic polls. However, it's been two months since the municipal elections were held and Delhi is yet to get a mayor.
While the first session of the 250-member House went in vain, the nominated members and elected members took oath in the second session.
After the oath-taking exercise, the second session was adjourned till the next date by Presiding Officer and BJP councillor Satya Sharma.
While BJP members had walked out of the chamber shouting slogans against the AAP and its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, the ruling party members refused to budge from their seats and held a peaceful protest in the House for nearly five hours.
Before dispersing from the Civic Centre, senior leaders of the AAP, including Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, told reporters that by "not allowing" the mayoral election to take place, the BJP was "strangulating democracy" and "starting a dangerous tradition".
AAP leader and party MLA Atishi had appealed to Lt Governor V K Saxena to ensure the election for mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee is held at the earliest.
"I am hopeful that this time the mayoral election will be conducted. The BJP is levelling allegations against us because they are not sure. We have the mandate, and we are feeling confident today. Let's hope for the best," AAP mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi told PTI ahead of House proceedings on Monday.
Even before the session started, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleged the BJP has instructed its councillors to create a ruckus like the last time to stall the mayoral elections.
Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva retorted, saying it is the AAP which has asked its councillors to do so and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be responsible if the House is adjourned.
The AAP had emerged as a clear winner in Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) 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.
Rekha Gupta is the BJP's mayoral candidate.
The nominees for the post of deputy mayor are -- Aaley Mohammad Iqbal (AAP) and Kamal Bagri (BJP).
Besides mayor and deputy mayor, six members of the MCD standing committee are also slated to be elected during the session.
The MCD came into being in April 1958. Its mayor wielded influence and carried huge prestige till 2012, when the corporation was spilt into three separate civic bodies, each having its own mayor.
But in 2022, the Centre brought a legislation to unify the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (104 wards), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (104 wards) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (64 wards) into a single entity, though it had capped the total number of wards at 250, down from 272 wards earlier.
Thus, after the mayoral poll, Delhi will get a mayor for the city as a whole after a gap of 10 years.
The December 4 MCD election was the first after the redrawing of the wards.
The post of mayor in Delhi sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, second for the open category, third for the reserved category, and the remaining two also being for the open category.
The MCD headquarters are housed in the towering Civic Centre, where they were shifted from the historic Town Hall in old Delhi in April 2020.
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Lucknow (PTI): Denied a ticket from Pilibhit Lok Sabha seat, BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Thursday wrote an emotional letter to the people of his constituency in which he asserted that his relationship with them will remain intact till his last breath.
Sharing the letter on X, he said, his relationship with Pilibhit is one of love and trust which is far above any political calculations.
The BJP has fielded Uttar Pradesh Public Works Minister Jitin Prasada from Pilibhit replacing Gandhi, who has been vocal against his own government several times on the issue of inflation and unemployment.
Prasada had filed his nominations on this seat on Wednesday.
Recounting his association with the constituency, he said "Today, when I am writing this letter, countless memories have made me emotional. I remember that little three-year-old child who came to Pilibhit for the first time in 1983 holding the fingers of his mother. Little did he know that one day this land would become his work place and the people here would become his family".
"The ideals given by Pilibhit were instrumental in my upbringing and development not only as an MP but also as a person. Being your representative has been the greatest honour of my life and I have always raised my voice for your interests to the best of my ability," he said.
Varun Gandhi said his tenure as an MP may be coming to an end, but his relationship with Pilibhit can't end till his last breath.
"If not as an MP, then at least as a son, I am committed to serve you throughout my life and my doors will always remain open for you as before. I came into politics to raise the voice of the common man and today I seek your blessings to continue doing this work always. Even if I have to pay any cost for this," he added.
This is for the first time in over three decades that the mother-son duo of Maneka and Varun Gandhi will not be in the fray from the Pilibhit constituency which is located in the Terai belt bordering Nepal.
The denial of ticket to Varun Gandhi this time did not come as a surprise as he has been criticising the BJP on the issues of farmers, health and jobs.
After he was replaced by Prasada, reports did the rounds that Varun Gandhi might contest from the seat as an independent candidate. The suspense ended on Wednesday when he did not turn up before the nominations ended.
His mother Maneka Gandhi, the sitting MP from Sultanpur, was, however, given another chance from the same seat by the BJP.
The Pilibhit seat has remained with Maneka Gandhi or her son Varun Gandhi since 1996.
Maneka Gandhi won the seat on a Janata Dal ticket in 1989, lost in 1991 and won again in 1996. She won from the constituency in 1998 and 1999 as an Independent candidate. She won the seat in 2004 and 2014 as a BJP candidate.
Varun Gandhi won the seat in 2009 and 2019 as a BJP candidate.
प्रणाम पीलीभीत 🙏 pic.twitter.com/D6T3uDUU6o
— Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) March 28, 2024