No swearing-in, no mayor as AAP-BJP row escalates

NEW DELHI: The first house meeting of the reunified MCD ended in chaos on Friday, in an ominous indication of the bumpy road ahead in the functioning of the civic body. The election of the mayor, deputy mayor and standing committee members couldn't take place amidst uproarious scenes, pushing and shoving and slogan-shouting.
The ruckus started when AAP councillors rushed to the well of the house after presiding officer Satya Sharma invited the nominated members - the aldermen - first for administering the oath of office. BJP councillors, too, then rushed to the well and some of them tried to stop the AAP councillors from reaching the dais, leading to jostling. The AAP councillors said there was no precedent for swearing in the nominated councillors first. They alleged that BJP wanted to give the aldermen power to vote in the mayor election, which was against the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act. The aldermen, all from BJP, have been nominated by the LG, which has not gone down well with AAP.
AAP councillors protest ‘breach of protocol’
T he BJP functionaries, on the other hand, denied the allegation, insisting that they had no intention to change the norms. It didn’t take long for the storm to break out on Friday. The house meeting started at 11.30am with the MCD commissioner, Gyanesh Bharti, reading out the LG’s notification for nominating Satya Sharma, councillor from ward 226, as presiding officer. She was later administered the oath by the district magistrate of New Delhi, Santosh Kumar Rai.
The moment she took over the podium and started announcing names of the aldermen for taking oath one by one, the leader of the AAP councillors, Mukesh Goel, got up and objected. “Inviting the nominated members to take oath first is against the established precedent. Never in my tenure as councillor for 25 years have the nominated councillors been invited first,” said Goel. Barely had Goel spoken that the AAP councillors reached the dais. Among them was one from Dilshad Colony, Preeti, and another from Mahavir Enclave, Parveen Kumar. They tried to stop the proceedings, snatching papers, and the presiding officer was given protection by the security staff stationed there. Meanwhile, the aldermen were joined by the elected BJP councillors on the stage.
A scuffle broke out between the two warring groups. Sensing more trouble, Satya Sharma adjourned the house for an hour and left the place. She was accompanied by the commissioner and other officials. The ruckus intensified and the councillors were continuously shouting slogans and waving placards. Some councillors climbed on to the tables, breaking some mics. The police tried to control the situation but failed. In the process, the podium suffered damage. “We did manage to complete the swearing-in of four members — Vinod Kumar (Daryapur Kalan village), Laxman Arya (DDA Flats, Narela), Mukesh Mann (Nehru Enclave, Alipur) and Suneet Chauhan (resident of Bakhta warpur). They have now been officially nominated as aldermen in MCD,” said Sharma, speaking to TOI after adjourning the house. AAP MPs and MLAs soon called a press conference at the Civic Centre accusing the BJP councillors of “hooliganism” and brutally attacking their councillor and former leader of the opposition, Parveen Kumar.
The party’s Rajya Sabha MP, Sushil Gupta, said Section 3A (1) of the MCD Act prohibits nominated councillors from casting vote for election of mayor etc. “It has also been the long-standing protocol that the elected councillors take their oath first,”he said. Meanwhile, BJP claimed it had taken five of their councillors for an MLC to RML Hospital. Delhi BJP spokesperson Parveen Shankar Kapoor said three councillors (Sharad Kapoor, Inder Kaur, Anita Sangwan) were injured in the scuffle and a fourth one (Sharad Kapoor) had ruptured his ligaments. The house was reconvened after an hour but the commotion didn’t subside. In fact, this time the situation turned worse when a councillor lifted a chair to attack another councillor but AAP MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak intervened to stop him. It was then that the house was adjourned for the day with the presiding officer saying that the LG will take a decision on when the house should convene next.