This was after the municipal commissioner Ashwani Kumar called for an election to fill the MCD standing committee seat, which is vacant today, Friday; AAP leader Manish Sisodia criticised the notice. Sisodia came up with the notice as “illegal” and declared his party, AAP, not to take part in the election process.
This is very much clear with Sisodia, who chided Kumar for admitting that a bureaucrat like you cannot chair a meeting of elected representatives, adding that Kumar cannot even be a polling officer like Anil Masih in the disputed Chandigarh mayor election earlier this year. In that case, Masih was charged for influencing the ballot in favour of the BJP, although the Supreme Court nullified the decision and declared the AAP candidate as the winner of the seat.
However, AAP decided not to contest the election, and Delhi BJP chief Virender Sachdeva accused the party of avoiding responsibility, whereby he said that AAP was in the majority within the MCD but was reluctant to conduct an election. Sachdeva charged AAP with acting against democracy by not constituting major panels more than 21 months after the MCD polls. “AAP, Arvind Kejriwal, and Manish Sisodia have committed this murder of democracy in MCD. They reject fresh elections for majority positions such as the aldermen, zonal, and standing committees. The courts have had to intercede to keep the MCD operational, he said, asking why AAP did not want to go forward with the election.
On Thursday, the ruckus happened when both parties wanted to install the eighth member of the standing committee, and the House could not decide between the two candidates despite eight hours of argument, adjournments, protests, and the interference of Delhi’s lieutenant governor VK Saxena. AAP filed a protest to an order from the municipal secretariat that the use of handphones in the chamber during proceedings is prohibited.
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