Delhi Mayor Election 2023: AAP Moves Supreme Court Demanding Polls in Time-Bound Manner

AAP national spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said Leader of the House Mukesh Goel and Oberoi approached the top court for directions to ensure that the mayoral election is conducted in a time-bound manner.

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi moved the Supreme Court on Thursday for directions to ensure that the mayoral election in Delhi is conducted in a time-bound manner, party officials said. The mayoral election in the national capital was stalled on Tuesday for the second time this month as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House was adjourned indefinitely by the lieutenant governor-appointed presiding officer, following a ruckus created by some councillors.

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of hooliganism and halting the MCD proceedings, AAP national spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said Leader of the House Mukesh Goel and Oberoi approached the top court for directions to ensure that the mayoral election is conducted in a time-bound manner. The case is likely to be taken up on Friday, AAP leaders said.

Bharadwaj said the party has also sought a prohibition on the aldermen casting their votes.

"We have placed two major demands in the Supreme Court, the first is to elect the mayor in a time-bound manner and form the board in the MCD. Second, as the aldermen do not have the right to vote under Article 243R of the Constitution and section 3 of the DMC Act, they should be prohibited from casting votes," he said.

"They have no moral right to capture and illegally control the MCD for so long. The MCD was put under the central government on the pretext of unification and delimitation. The people of Delhi have given the mandate in the MCD to the AAP and despite that, the BJP has resorted to dirty politics. They (BJP leaders) have been creating a ruckus and not allowing the mayoral election to be conducted," Bharadwaj said.

Delhi BJP's working president Virendra Sachdeva accused the AAP and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of misleading the public.

"Whenever they have to divert the people's attention from their mistakes, they move the court. Later, when the decision of the court does not favour them, they refuse to accept it. The AAP should also tell the court how it resorted to hooliganism in the House, who threw the microphone and which party's councillors climbed over the presiding officer's chair," Sachdeva said.

He further claimed that there are photographs and videos that "prove" that the AAP councillors "deliberately obstructed" the mayoral election.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Congress has accused the AAP and Kejriwal of indulging in "political stunts" by approaching the Supreme Court for the mayoral election.

"Both the AAP and the BJP indulged in hooliganism in the MCD House in an utter disregard to the Delhiites who elected them to power. Without a mayor and an elected body, the civic administration has taken a severe hit. But the AAP and BJP politicians are least bothered about it," a Congress leader alleged.

The first meeting of the newly-elected MCD House was also adjourned on January 6 amid a ruckus by the AAP and BJP members. The AAP won 134 of the 250 wards in the MCD polls held in December. The BJP managed to win 104 wards.