The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday won the last vacant seat of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) standing committee, the highest decision-making body of Delhi civic body.
In the elections for the last vacant seat of the 18-member MCD Standing Committee, BJP candidate Sunder Singh received 115 votes, while the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Nirmala Kumari did not get any votes.
Singh won unopposed as the councillors of the ruling AAP and Congress boycotted the election.
Reacting to his victory, Sunder Singh Tanwar said, “I thank the top leadership for having faith in me. The AAP also had filed their nomination but they might not have had trust in their own councillors. They thought it was better to run away from the election.”
Further stating that they were given opportunities multiple times, Sunder Singh said, "Everybody was given time of 1 pm today but they did not show up…The presiding officer conducted the election free and fair...I won..."
The seat became vacant after BJP councillor Kamaljeet Sehrawat was elected as the Lok Sabha MP from West Delhi.
Now, the BJP has 10 members in the panel while the ruling AAP has only eight.
Meanwhile, AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal slammed the BJP and accused the saffron party of stealing the mandate and ‘wrongly overpowering’ the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
"Is this election?" he asked and accused the BJP of resorting to "hooliganism".
As per the rule, a notice has to be sent to every councillor 72 hours before the meeting, but it was not followed, claimed the former chief minister.
However, BJP Councillor Raja Iqbal Singh termed it as the win of democracy. "The AAP knew they would lose the floor test so they left the battleground. The AAP is good at lying...they can go to court but the court always pulls them up," the BJP councillor added.
On Wednesday, after three AAP councillors switched sides and joined the BJP, the saffron party said the AAP had lost the majority in the MCD House and hence, the "moral authority" to be in power.
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