The Supreme Court has directed to issue notice for the Mayor election in Delhi and the first meeting of the MCD. The court said on Friday that the notice should be issued within 24 hours and it should mention the date of election of mayor, deputy mayor and other members. The court, while giving relief to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), said that the nominated members of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) cannot vote in the mayoral election.
Mayor will be elected in the first meeting of MCD-SC
The court said that the election of the mayor of Delhi will be done in the first meeting of the MCD. After the mayor is elected, he will preside over the election of the deputy mayor. On the Supreme Court’s decision, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, ‘SC’s order is a victory for democracy. Many thanks to SC. Delhi will now get a mayor after two and a half months. It has been proved that how LG and BJP together are passing illegal and unconstitutional orders in Delhi every day.”
How did AAP’s path become easy?
The governor had nominated 10 councilors
There is an atmosphere of happiness in AAP after the court’s decision as the Aam Aadmi Party has benefited in the numbers game due to nominated members not voting in the mayoral election. In fact, last month, 10 councilors were nominated by Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena. In this, four were sworn in on 6 January and the remaining six on 23 January. All these councilors belonged to BJP.
BJP had demanded voting of nominated members
This step of the Governor had created difficulties for the Aam Aadmi Party and it could have lagged behind in the numbers game. There was a dispute over whether these nominated councilors have the right to vote in the election of mayor and deputy mayor. BJP was demanding voting of these corporators while AAP said that this is an illegal method.
Earlier, four times the meeting called for the election of mayor and deputy mayor was marred by ruckus.
AAP is the largest party in MCD
Significantly, there are a total of 250 wards in Delhi. In this election, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged as the single largest party with 134 councillors, while the BJP won 104 seats and the Congress nine.
What changed after the ‘Supreme’ decision?
After the decision of the Supreme Court, now a total of 274 members will vote in the mayor’s election. This includes 250 councilors of Delhi, 7 Lok Sabha and 3 Rajya Sabha MPs and 14 MLAs nominated by the Legislative Assembly. The Delhi Assembly Speaker has nominated one BJP MLA and 13 AAP MLAs to vote. Now according to the new arithmetic, AAP has 151 members while BJP has 112 members.
