The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) expressed its gratitude to the Supreme Court which on Friday agreed to list on February 3, the hearing of a plea by the party seeking directions to hold mayoral elections in Delhi in a time-bound manner.
"We thank the Supreme Court with folded hands. An appeal was made on behalf of the Aam Aadmi Party that the elections of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Standing Committee should be held in Delhi as soon as possible and it should also be ordered that aldermen who are nominated councillors cannot vote. Not only in the constitution but also in the DMC Act, nominated councillors cannot vote," said Saurabh Bhardwaj in a self-recorded video.
The party in its plea filed by its mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi, urged for an immediate election for the post of the MCD mayor. The AAP has also sought the prohibition on voting by aldermen as per law.
MLA Bharadwaj alleged that the BJP "wants to keep the MCD under its control due to greed and dishonesty."
"Now it is also clear that the Aam Aadmi Party wants the mayoral elections to be held as soon as possible because the people of Delhi have given a majority to the Aam Aadmi Party. BJP wants to keep the MCD under its control due to greed and dishonesty,"Bharadwaj said.
"Since March 2022, the BJP has kept its hold on the MCD, sometimes in the name of delimitation and sometimes in the name of elections. Whenever the MCD House is called, the BJP postpones the elections by making one or the other excuse," he added.
Stating the reason for approaching the Supreme Court, the AAP MLA said, "We wanted the Supreme Court to order the Central Government and the LG to conduct the elections of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Standing Committee in a free and fair manner as soon as possible."
On Tuesday, elections for the Delhi Mayor were postponed after the house was adjourned sine die after Presiding officer Satya Sharma said the proceedings cannot be conducted amid sloganeering from both AAP and BJP councillors.
This is the second time in a month that the election for Delhi mayor was disrupted.
On January 6, the mayoral elections at the MCD House were postponed after clashes erupted between AAP and BJP councillors.
The AAP had fielded Shelly Oberoi as their candidate for the post of mayor while BJP nominated Rekha Gupta. Aaley Mohammad Iqbal is the deputy mayor candidate of AAP.
( With inputs from ANI )
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