NEW DELHI: After a full day of violence and ugly scenes amid proceedings to elect six members of the standing committee, the House of MCD was adjourned on Friday night to redo the election process on Monday next week.
Complete chaos prevailed in the House over a single vote, which was declared invalid during the counting by newly elected mayor Shelly Oberoi. A lone vote turned Delhi’s civic body into a wrestling arena as the elected councillors did everything to lower the dignity of the House: punches flew all around amid pushing and shoving as vituperative councillors went after each other.
AAP and BJP councillors resorted to violence after newly elected Mayor Shelly Oberoi declared a vote cast in favour of BJP councilor Pankaj Luthra invalid. He was in the fray for a seat in the standing committee. The BJP demanded the vote be declared valid and asked for a recount. The Mayor announced that the invalid vote could not be called valid and that the result would be declared without counting it. But it triggered a riot-like situation, interrupting the counting.
Both sides have traded charges of violent attacks. AAP, which is now ruling the MCD, alleged that Oberoi was shoved during the commotion while its one, councillor fell unconscious during acrimonious scenes. The Mayor had declared one vote invalid when the counting of votes started. The BJP claimed that it was done by Oberoi since both BJP and AAP were getting equal seats in the powerful panel.
In the voting, out of 250 councillors, 242 participated. Eight councilors from Congress abstained. The expected cross-voting also happened. AAP, with 133 seats in the House, claimed to have scored 138 votes. It said that five BJP members cross-voted for it. Earlier in the day, AAP councillor Pawan Serawat joined the BJP hours before the polls.
Meanwhile, the BJP, which controls 106 votes, received 104 votes -- two less than their strength in the House. The standing committee polls have been an unprecedented event. The polls began on Wednesday evening, after the election of the mayor and deputy mayor.
But the House descended into chaos that day as AAP and BJP councillors battled it out which resulted into a daylong adjournment before over a dozen short adjournments, which happened till Thursday morning. The councillors exchanged blows and at one point, even resorted to flinging water bottles, fruits, and ballot boxes at one another that day.
Row over single vote
The significance of the single vote could be gauged from fact that declaring it invalid gave AAP a position of majority in the standing committee with four out of six seats, while counting it had given equal numbers to both AAP and the BJP with three seats each. While the mayor is the nominal head of the civic body, it is the standing committee that has executive powers. Taking over the powerful panel would give the majority party an edge over the corporation’s affairs. A mayor has limited powers.