NEW DELHI: The first meeting of the newly-elected Municipal Corporation of Delhi House got adjourned for the day without electing the mayor and the deputy mayor amid loud protests by AAP councillors over the presiding officer's decision to administer oath to the 10 aldermen first.
The new date of the meeting will be announced later.
The meeting on Friday began with BJP councillor Satya Sharma being administered the oath as presiding officer for the elections to the posts of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) mayor and deputy mayor.
After Sharma invited alderman Manoj Sharma to take his oath, AAP MLAs and councillors began to protest.
The BJP councillors raised slogans against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal as AAP members sloganeered against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The oathtaking was stopped and the meeting disrupted as AAP councillors stood on the tables, including those of the presiding officer. Both sides also alleged manhandling by the other camp.
The AAP has alleged that Saxena has appointed BJP leaders who were not experts in civic issues as aldermen.
Aldermen, an old English word, refers to people who are experts in their fields. However, they do not have voting rights in the mayoral election. Ten aldermen were nominated to the MCD ahead of the mayoral poll.
Meanwhile, AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj claimed that nominated members (aldermen) never cast their votes in the MCD House "neither in the mayor election nor in the deputy mayor election." The BJP is trying to increase the number of its votes by wrong means, he alleged.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a letter to Saxena on Thursday, registered his protest on the issue.
Kejriwal said in his letter that "it is pertinent to note that these 10 members (the aldermen) have been intentionally chosen to represent three zones out of 12 of the municipal corporation" which he said appears to be an attempt "to influence the process of elections to the Standing Committee of the Municipal Corporation."
Kejriwal alleged that since one member of the standing committee gets chosen from each zone, "the attempt quite clearly is to ensure that the composition of the panel is skewed in favour of the persons belonging or owing allegiance to the ruling party at the Centre and thereby subvert the will of the electorate in the recently concluded elections to the municipal corporations."
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia wrote to MCD Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti over the "bypassing of elected state government" during the nominations of aldermen and directed him to desist from taking any further action in regard.
The MCD House comprises 250 elected councillors.
The BJP's seven Lok Sabha MPs from Delhi and the AAP's three Rajya Sabha MPs and 14 MLAs nominated by the Delhi Assembly Speaker will also participate in the elections to the posts of mayor and deputy mayor.
Six members of the standing committee will also be elected.
The Congress, which has nine councillors, has decided not to take part in the voting.
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(With PTI inputs)