Explained: Delhi Mayor election fails its third attempt. 5 points

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi House adjourned on 6 February without electing a mayor for the third time in a month. 

This is the third session of the House after the December 4 municipal polls. The first two sessions were held on 6 and 24 January and were adjourned by the presiding officer without electing a mayor following a ruckus and acrimonious exchanges between the members of the BJP and the AAP.

According to the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, 1957, the mayor and the deputy mayor are to be elected in the very first session of the House after the civic polls. However, it's been two months since the municipal elections were held and Delhi is yet to get a mayor. The municipal elections in Delhi were held on December 4 and the results were announced on 7 December, in which the Aam Aadmi Party won a maximum of 134 seats out of 250.

Here's what happened today:

Earlier today house proceedings began at the Delhi Civic Centre after Presiding officer Satya Sharma arrived and announced that aldermen- nominated members- will be allowed to vote in the process of electing the mayor, deputy mayor and Standing Committee members.  

The announcement by Sharma drew protests from AAP councillors. Party leader Mukesh Goel said aldermen can't vote. This is the third time in a row that the house has been adjourned after a ruckus erupted over nominated members being allowed to vote in the election.

AAP leader Atishi has said the party will move the Supreme Court so that the polls can be held in a "court-monitored manner". After emerging from the House, AAP leader Atishi told reporters, "We will go to the Supreme Court, and we will go today itself so that the mayoral elections can be held in a court-monitored manner."

Hitting out at the BJP over the adjournment of the Delhi municipal House, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia on Monday said the party only believes in hooliganism and is not allowing the mayoral polls to be held. The BJP wants to run the MCD forcibly and hence it is resorting to creating a ruckus in the House, Sisodia said at a press conference. "The BJP resorted to ruckus while the AAP councillors were sitting silently. The ruckus created by the BJP shows that the party does not believe in the Constitution, laws and they only believe in hooliganism," he said.

On Sunday, AAP Councillors had written a letter to MCD's Presiding Officer, demanding the debarment of aldermen in today's election of the mayor, deputy mayor and the Standing Committee. The letter read, "We are the elected Councillors to MCD winning on the symbol of Aam Aadmi Party. On 06.02.2023, the election of Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Standing Committee member shall occur as per the direction of the Competent Authority." In the letter to the presiding officer, the councillors also mentioned the law and the Constitution's provisions, they wrote, "This is to reiterate that as per Article 243 R of the Constitution of India and as given in the Proviso to Section 3 (b)(i) of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, the nominated members (Alderman) are not entitled to vote in the above-mentioned elections."

Speaking of the contenders, Shelly Oberoi and Ashu Thakur are AAP's contenders for the post of mayor, with Oberoi said to have a stronger claim to the post. BJP has nominated Rekha Gupta as its contender for the post. With this, the national capital would get a woman mayor and she will step into the footsteps of freedom fighter Aruna Asaf Ali who was chosen to the top post in 1958 when the Municipal Corporation of Delhi came into being.

The nominees for the post of deputy mayor are Aaley Mohammad Iqbal and Jalaj Kumar from AAP. Kamal Bagri has been nominated from BJP for the deputy mayor's role. Seven candidates are in the fray for 6 posts on the Standing Committee. Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Amil Malik, Raminder Kaur, Mohini Jeenwal and Sarika Chowdhary while BJP has Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Gajendra Daral and Pankaj Luthra as its candidates for the Standing Committee.

(With inputs from agencies)