BJP charges AAP of resorting to excuses to delay the MCD mayor election

The BJP Monday accused the Aam Aadmi Party of coming out with excuses to stall the mayoral election, as the MCD House was adjourned for a third time in a month without completing the poll process.

BJP leaders said their councilors, aldermen and MPs who have voting right in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House will stage a protest outside the AAP headquarters here on Tuesday.

BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri, who addressed a press conference along with other party colleagues, rejected AAP's opposition to allow aldermen (nominated councilors) to vote in the mayoral poll.

The law mandates the Central government to decide who will vote in the MCD House, he said.

The AAP has slammed the decision by presiding officer Satya Sharma, who is a BJP councilor, to allow voting right to aldermen.

Delhi BJP MLA Vijender Gupta said the AAP comes up with one or the other excuse to create a ruckus at the MCD House and stall the elections for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor, and members of the standing committee.

He said although the AAP is opposing voting rights to the aldermen, it had nominated 10 members each in the three municipal corporations in 2017 -- they were merged in 2022 -- and "grabbed" the posts of chairpersons of zonal committees of the civic bodies with their help.

"The decision allowing voting right to aldermen was taken by the presiding officer of the MCD House who is authorised to do so by the Act of the Parliament," Gupta said.

Delhi BJP general secretary Harsh Malhotra said party councilors, aldermen and MPs who have voting rights in MCD House elections will stage a protest outside AAP office on the DDU Marg on Tuesday.

He alleged that AAP councilors created a ruckus when two AAP MLAs nominated to the House -- Sanjiv Jha and Akhilesh Pati Tripathi -- were denied voting right for being convicted in court cases.

They refused to leave the House as directed by the presiding officer and the AAP councilors and other leaders created a ruckus over the issue, Gupta charged.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has alleged that BJP is blocking the mayoral polls, saying the party is "running the MCD" with the help of officers and is taking "wrong" decisions

Addressing a press conference, Sisodia said the ruckus "initiated" by the BJP shows the party does not believe in the Constitution, or laws. "They believe only in hooliganism".

The AAP leaders have said that the party will go to Supreme Court for a court monitored elections in the MCD House.

The first two sessions -- held on January 6 and January 24 -- were also adjourned by the presiding officer without electing a mayor following a ruckus and acrimonious exchanges between the members of the BJP and the AAP.