Mobiles and pens at centre of all-night ruckus on MCD floor in Delhi

AAP’s Shelly Oberoi was elected mayor and Aaley Mohammad Iqbal deputy mayor on Wednesday before the election for six of the 18 Standing Committee members gave way to confrontations between councillors from both sides.

The AAP alleged that the House was adjourned repeatedly because of the ruckus and vandalism caused by BJP leaders, who also allegedly attempted to damage the ballot box.

Meanwhile, the BJP said that the MCD House proceedings went on peacefully till the election of the mayor and deputy mayor but the AAP had “other plans” for the election of six members of the Standing Committee.

At the core of the tussle, the BJP alleged, was allowing those who had voting rights in these elections to carry mobile phones and pens into the polling chamber after prohibiting the same during the mayoral and deputy mayoral elections.

“I was present during both the elections; what happened, the scenes that we and the entire country are seeing today were as per a pre-planned conspiracy,” North East Delhi BJP MP Manoj Tiwari alleged.

“What happened was triggered by the mayor allowing the use of mobile phones during the election for the Standing Committee… Allowing mobile phones to be taken to the polling chamber only during the standing committee elections was what BJP councillors objected to and were then assaulted by AAP councillors for,” he added.

The AAP, he further alleged, resorted to violence because it was certain that it did not have enough pull among its own councillors to win enough Standing Committee seats.

While the mayor is the nominal head of the civic body, it is the Standing Committee which has executive powers. A mayor’s powers are limited to calling special meetings of the House, declaring quorum for the House to convene sittings, and disqualifying members if they do not furnish details of their assets.

Powers to grant financial approval to projects, appoint sub-committees (on issues such as education, environment, parking etc), form regulations, and discussions related to and the finalisation of policies to be implemented are under the ambit of the Standing Committee, which has 18 members.

While six members of this committee were to be elected on Wednesday by councillors, the remaining 12 were to be elected by ward committees later.

Oberoi alleged that the House was adjourned repeatedly because of the ruckus and vandalism caused by BJP leaders. “The ballot box was thrown, the ballot booklet was torn, things were thrown. We kept the House running because our aim was to follow the SC order but that could not be done,” she said.

“The whole night, we made efforts to ensure that elections happen, the House was adjourned 13 times to be reconvened…It has now been adjourned till Friday morning 10 am…At the end of the day, it is the people of Delhi who are suffering,” she added.

“In the past two-and-a-half months the BJP has been trying to run the House in unconstitutional and illegal ways. Again, the people of Delhi are losing out. Work has been stalled. I would like to name the councillors – Rekha Gupta who broke the podium, Amit Nagpal who threw the ballot box and tore the ballot paper booklet,” Oberoi said at a press conference on Thursday.

On the question of mobile phones being allowed, Oberoi said, “In no Act is it written that mobile phones are to be banned while voting. It is to be silent. No restrictions were placed and it is there in the footage that I said that if you want to take the mobile phone you can, otherwise don’t. It was unnecessarily made into an issue. We consulted with our lawyers, there is no provision anywhere that mobile phones cannot be taken inside during voting.”

“The votes that were cast…how can we consider them to be invalid. There needs to be some legal reason for that. It was after 40-45 votes were cast that the BJP raised this. That raises questions,” she said.

On what action will be taken against the councillors who created the ruckus, she said that will be decided in the next meeting.

AAP Member of Parliament Sanjay Singh said, “Even during the MCD elections, voters were allowed to carry mobile phones to booths. If this was a violation, why would the Election Commission allow this?.”

Singh added: “They are not able to take their defeat and are not willing to accept the people’s mandate. They are challenging the Constitution, democracy and the Supreme Court…that they will not listen to anybody and will do as they please.”

AAP MLA Atishi said, “I would like to appeal to the BJP to accept the mandate of the people of Delhi. You ruled in the MCD for 15 years, now the people of Delhi have thrown you out. The people have given AAP a victory with a big majority in the election. Now let the AAP work in the MCD for five years, this is democracy. If we don’t work, the people will choose you again five years later, you will be given another chance. But accept the mandate of the people and respect democracy. It is clear that the BJP does not want this election to happen. New excuses are being made to ensure the election doesn’t happen. They are not able to accept their defeat in the election.”