AAP councillor withdraws nomination for Dy mayor post, denies any pressure
NEW DELHI: AAP councillor Narendra Kumar withdrew his nomination for the post of the MCD deputy mayor on Monday, days after he and another contender, Vijay Kumar, self-nominated for the post, officials said here.
Last Thursday, after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) declared its candidates for the April 26 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) mayoral polls, fielding Mahesh Khichi for the post of mayor and Ravinder Bhardwaj for deputy mayor, its councillors Vijay Kumar and Narendra Kumar filed their nominations, indicating internal conflict in the party. In the latest turn of events, Narendra Kumar withdrew his nomination without citing any reason.
Denying any pressure from the party to withdraw his nomination, the councillor said, “I have withdrawn my nomination on my own. There was no pressure from the party.” On why he filed the nomination papers earlier against his party’s choice and if there was a conflict with the party, he did not give any clear answer.
Earlier last week, AAP termed the self-nominations by its councillors “BJP’s tactic” to break the party.
Narendra Kumar is the councillor of Ward-119 Manglapuri, while Vijay Kumar represents Ward-192 Trilokpuri. The mayoral polls will be held on April 26 at the Civic Centre.
The Congress has nine councillors in the 250-member MCD House while AAP has 134 members. The BJP has 104 councillors. The electoral college for the mayoral polls includes 14 MLAs nominated by the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly and the Capital’s seven Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha members.
The Congress on Saturday said it will support its Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc partner, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in the Delhi mayoral polls to prevent a repeat of the Chandigarh mayoral election results, where the BJP was declared the winner as votes of several AAP members were declared invalid by the presiding officer. The results were overturned after the Supreme Court stepped in and called out “brazen malpractices” in the election process.