Municipal House to elect Delhi mayor month after first session went in vain
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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Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee holds roadshow in south Kolkata to end campaign
Kolkata (PTI): Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee undertook a roadshow in south Kolkata spanning over six kilometres on Monday afternoon at the fag end of campaigning for the second and final phase of the West Bengal assembly election.
The TMC chief was accompanied by party Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose and candidates Aroop Biswas and Debasish Kumar from Tollygunge and Rashbehari, respectively.
People waiting on the roadside and on rooftops and balconies waved at Banerjee as she greeted them with folded hands, walking briskly, as her party compatriots had a tough time keeping pace with her.
The chief minister is contesting from the Bhabanipur assembly seat, where she is pitted against her bete noire, Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP, who defeated her in the 2021 elections in Nandigram.
Banerjee was subsequently elected from Bhabanipur in a byelection.
The roadshow started at Sukanta Setu in the Jadavpur area and culminated at Gopalnagar crossing, past her Kalighat residence, with two small stopovers in between.
TMC flags, festoons, cutouts of Banerjee and banners with slogans in favour of the candidates adorned the roadsides through which the road show passed and culminated at around 5.30 pm.
A large number of TMC supporters participated in the roadshow that Banerjee conducted to end her campaign for the 2026 assembly election in West Bengal.
