MCD House adjourned amid ruckus for 12th time, fails to elect standing committee

As clashes continued between AAP and BJP members over the Delhi MCD Standing Committee polls, the MCD House was adjourned till Friday without electing any of the committee’s six members.

The chaos ensued hours after AAP's Shelly Oberoi was elected the Mayor of the MCD. The members of the two parties indulged in physical violence and sloganeering through the night, leading to back to back adjournments.

The House met at 8.30 am on Thursday but was adjourned for an hour amid sloganeering. The House reconvened at 9.30 am but was adjourned till 10 am on Friday shortly afterwards.

While the BJP is protesting against Mayor Shelly Oberoi's decision to allow members to carry mobile phones to the booth area during the election of the MCD panel, the AAP accused the saffron party of resorting to “hooliganism” because of its defeat in the mayoral polls.

Addressing a press conference at the civic centre, Oberoi alleged that ballot papers were torn by the BJP councillors during the election. “It's shameful what the BJP councillors did. The ballot box was thrown and ballot papers were torn and I was attacked,” she alleged.

“The BJP resorted to unconstitutional behaviour in the House once again. BJP's Rekha Gupta and Amit Nagpal resorted to hooliganism in the House and we will take action against them,” she said.

Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh alleged that the BJP is “not being able to accept their defeat” in the MCD mayoral polls.

The clashes between AAP-BJP members on Wednesday were triggered by a bitter argument between the two sides over the mode of conducting the election to the members of the standing committee. BJP members claimed that some of their fellow party councillors got hit with objects flung in the air, while Oberoi alleged that some BJP councillors tried to attack her during the proceedings to hold the election.

AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that the BJP was not allowing the standing committee elections to take place."We want elections (to six members of Standing Committee). Despite the Supreme Court's order, the BJP is still creating ruckus and not allowing elections to take place, but the House will continue to function until the election process is over," he tweeted in Hindi.

AAP won the election to the posts of both the mayor and deputy mayor on Wednesday and the standing committee members' election was held over an hour after the deputy mayor was elected.