Delhi mayor polls: Elected members take oath amid heavy security

NEW DELHI: The Municipal House of Delhi reconvened on Tuesday amid heavy security and began the process of administering oath to the elected members and nominated councillers.

Proceedings began at the Civic Centre here with Presiding officer Satya Sharma of the BJP administered oath to the aldermen, the members nominated by the Lt Governor before administering the oath to the elected councillors.

Shweta Daman Khatri of AAP was the first among the elected members to take oath. Congress reiterated that its nine councillors will not participate in the voting process.

Proceedings of the House began nearly three weeks after the process to elect the new mayor was aborted on January 6 following acrimonious scenes between the AAP and the BJP.

Ahead of the session visuals from the House showed heavy deployment of security personnel, including in the well of the House. Sharing a video, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said: "Today BJP has brought force with sticks to take possession of Municipal Corporation.

Have you seen this in any House?" The mayoral election was abandoned earlier this month following a ruckus between nominated councillors, and their elected colleagues over the issue of who would take oath first.

Aam Aadmi Party, which won the MCD polls, with 134 seats has fielded Shelly Oberoi for the mayor's post while Rekha Gupta, a three-term councillor from Shalimar Bagh, is the BJP's nominee.

For the deputy mayor post, the AAP has fielded Aaley Mohammad Iqbal and the BJP has fielded Ram Nagar councillor Kamal Bagri. Besides elections for six members of the Standing Committee from the House will also be conducted today.

Seven candidates are in the fray for six posts of the Standing Committee. The Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Amil Malik, Raminder Kaur, Mohini Jeenwal and Sarika Chowdhary while the BJP has fielded Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Gajendra Daral and Pankaj Luthra.

Seven Lok Sabha MPs of Delhi, three Rajya Sabha MPs and 14 MLAs are among those nominated who have been made on the consent of the Speaker of the Delhi Legislative Assembly will also take part in the voting.

On January 6, high drama ensued in the house for over an hour as Delhi was all set to elect its first single mayor in 10 years after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi was unified last year.

The AAP, which ended the 15-year-long reign of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the MCD polls held on December 4, has cried foul play over Delhi LG VK Saxena's decision to appoint BJP councillor Satya Sharma as the presiding officer of MCD and 10 aldermen to the civic body.

Civic polls in Delhi were held on December 4 and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) bagged 134 wards, the BJP won 104 wards while the Congress won nine seats in the 250-member municipal house.