In a landmark victory, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has finally won the Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections after a long and tumultuous fight, under the slogan ‘MCD Mein Bhi Kejriwal’. The newly elected Mayor, Dr Shelly Oberoi, and Deputy Mayor, Shri Aaley Mohammad Iqbal, are the first to hold these positions in the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The AAP’s success was hailed by National Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal, who declared that “goons have lost, and the public has won.” The CM congratulated the Mayor and Deputy Mayor on their resounding victory, while Deputy Chief Minister Shri Manish Sisodia expressed his gratitude to the people of Delhi and thanked every single party worker for their relentless hard work.
The counting of votes started with the AAP candidates taking an early lead, which only got stronger as the counting progressed. The announcement of the results confirmed the Aam Aadmi Party’s victory, leading to a wave of happiness among the workers and office bearers of the party. The election results have brought a new wave of hope among the people of Delhi that the AAP will fulfil its guarantees and make a positive change in the city’s governance.
Delhi Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal congratulated Dr Shelly Oberoi on winning the mayoral election and Shri Aaley Mohammad Iqbal on winning the deputy mayor’s election. He tweeted, “Today in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the people of Delhi won, and hooliganism was defeated. Many congratulations to the public. People have won.”
AAP Senior Leader and Deputy Chief Minister Shri Manish Sisodia also congratulated the two, reiterating that the goons have lost, the public has won. “Thanks from the bottom of my heart to the people of Delhi. Many congratulations to Dr Shelly Oberoi, the first Mayor of the Aam Aadmi Party in MCD.” Shri Sisodia also congratulated Shri Aaley Mohammad Iqbal on his victory. He tweeted, “Many congratulations to Aaley Iqbal on being elected Deputy Mayor of Aam Aadmi Party in Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The BJP, the central government, and even the LG all went against the constitution and tried to stop it, but the people of Delhi did it. MCD Mein Bhi Kejriwal.”
After AAP candidate Dr Shelly Oberoi won the election for the post of MCD Mayor, by defeating the BJP candidate 150-116, AAP Chief Spokesperson Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj pointed out that Delhi will finally be getting a Mayor 80 days after it voted AAP to power in the MCD on December 7th last year. After that result there was no doubt that the Mayor of Delhi would belong to AAP. But the BJP-led Central Government and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi hatched a conspiracy and tried to form a BJP-led government in the MCD, which was against the wishes of the people who voted on December 4th last year.
Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj said that this led to wastage of 80 days in electing the Mayor of Delhi and added that from the day the Aam Aadmi Party won the MCD election, the BJP has been going around saying that the Mayor will belong to the BJP. He stressed that this could only have been possible if the BJP through money power managed to ‘buy out’ the councillors who won the election on an AAP ticket. The BJP tried its best in doing this, but failed to get AAP councillors to vote for them, he added. Once this failed, they tried to use other unconstitutional means to delay the election for the post of Mayor. Eventually it was because of the intervention of the Supreme Court that the elections could be held today, he added.
The Supreme Court in its judgement ruled that what the LG and the BJP have been saying is not only wrong but also unconstitutional and what the AAP had been saying all along is correct. It ruled that the nominated councillors cannot vote as the BJP had been claiming in the past. Therefore in the election that was conducted today, AAP went on to win 150 votes, which means that every legislator and councillor of AAP firmly stands with Shri Arvind Kejriwal and it is on his behest that they will be willing to give their sweat and blood for the party.
Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj said that under Operation Lotus, the BJP can poach legislators of Congress and other political parties but it cannot try to break away the legislators of the Aam Aadmi Party. He further attacked the Congress and said that it is very shameful that the party decided to boycott these elections knowing very well that boycotting these elections would directly help the BJP. The Congress in the past has helped the BJP in the Chandigarh Mayor elections and today it tried to help them in the Delhi Mayor election.
The MCD elections were originally slated to take place in April last year, but the BJP was scared of defeat and they delayed it for a couple of months citing the merger of the civic body. Over the last 15 years in which they were in power in the MCD, the BJP looted the people of Delhi and made a mess of the civic amenities in Delhi. The party was well-aware that if elections were held as scheduled, the people would vote them out of power. The BJP had seen the writing on the wall prior to the elections and therefore tried everything possible to delay it, including merging of the three MCDs, undertaking the delimitation process in a biassed manner and even ensuring that the Gujarat state elections and the MCD elections take place at the same time. But despite all of this, the people decided to vote against them and throw them out of the MCD.
However, the BJP is a political party that does not respect the principles of democracy. Therefore despite losing the elections of the MCD, they decided to not follow the mandate of the people and were trying everything possible to get a backdoor entry into the MCD. They first tried to ‘buy out’ AAP councillors and elect a Mayor of their choice. After all, the BJP is known for breaking state governments through the use of money and misuse of government agencies such as CBI and ED. However, it soon realised that the legislators of AAP are different as compared to other opposition leaders who are willing to sell themselves for a certain sum of money. They failed to get even one elected representative to betray AAP and join their party. Once the BJP realised that not even a single AAP councillor was willing to break away from the party, the BJP began to apply other illegal tactics to try and elect a Mayor of their choice.
They first illegally appointed the nominated councillors in the MCD without following the due process. After that they again illegally appointed a protem Mayor without following a well-established procedure. The precedent that is followed in the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and every state assembly is that the senior-most person is appointed as the Presiding Officer. In this case it should have been AAP’s Shri Mukesh Goel. But they decided to make one of their councillors Smt Satya Sharma as the Presiding Officer. After that they tried to get the nominated councillors to vote in the election of the Mayor. The Constitution also very clearly states that the nominated councillors are not allowed to vote, this is clearly stated under Article 243R, it is also there under Section 3 of DMC Act. The Aldermen have never previously voted in these elections, but the Presiding Officer, who is from the BJP, wanted them to vote. Later the Presiding Officer Smt Satya Sharma tried to get the elections for the post of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and the members of the Standing Committee – to be held together, which is once again against the law.
In the three attempts that were made at electing the Mayor, the BJP councillors also attacked the councillors of AAP and created a ruckus in the MCD House. Therefore, the Aam Aadmi Party was forced to approach the Supreme Court on the matter.
Last week, in a major victory for AAP and democracy, the Supreme Court ruled that the nominated councillors cannot vote and therefore brought an end to the conspiracy of the BJP. Today, the residents of Delhi finally got a Mayor more than two and a half months after AAP won the MCD election on December 7 last year.
