AAP calls MCD polls with additional commissioner as presiding officer "unconstitutional"

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) declared that the election for the Delhi Municipal Corporation standing committee member, which was set for this Friday at 1 pm, is "unconstitutional and illegal" and that it will only take place on October 5, PTI reported.

After the disturbance caused by the council members' frisking on Thursday, the election to the MCD Standing Committee was postponed until October 5 by Mayor Shelly Oberoi.

However, Lt Governor VK Saxena overturned the postponement of the elections and directed Ashwani Kumar, the MCD Commissioner to conduct the elections on Friday at 1 pm.

MCD Mayor Shelly Oberoi and prominent AAP leader Manish Sisodia accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the municipal commissioner of mocking democracy and the constitution during a press conference on Friday, PTI reported.

Sisodia claimed that the commissioner issued an order directing that the elections be conducted with an additional commissioner as the presiding officer late Thursday.

The BJP is attempting to repeat what it did in the Chandigarh mayoral poll, where it was caught red-handed," he said.

According to the rules, only the mayor, deputy mayor or a senior councilor can chair a meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House. The mayor had previously announced the House meeting and elections of the standing committee member for October 5, he said to PTI.

Sisodia further alleged that the commissioner's order to conduct the elections, which was issued under the direction of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor is "illegal".

Mayor Shelly Oberoi said she had already announced the next House meeting and the election of the sixth member of the standing committee to take place on October 5, adding that she was committed to a free and fair election.

This order by the commission is "unconstitutional, null and void and illegal", she said to PTI.

She asserted that the election would only be conducted on October 5.

(With inputs from PTI)