AAP, BJP blame each other for starting MCD house row; BJP to protest

New Delhi: The BJP and AAP accused each other of assaulting its councillors in a scuffle that broke out in the MCD House on Friday, with the AAP alleging that the BJP made the alderman take oath first to get them voting rights for the election to Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Meanwhile, the BJP has claimed the AAP counsellors had come prepared to disrupt the oath of the aldermen and they assaulted BJP councillors including women.

The maiden meeting of the newly elected MCD was adjourned without electing the mayor and the deputy mayor amid loud protests by AAP councillors over administering of oath to the 10 aldermen – the unelected members of the house.

The next date for the convening of the house will be announced later, BJP councillor Satya Sharma, the presiding officer overseeing the process, had earlier said.

Senior AAP leader Atishi said that they will file a complaint against the BJP for attacking the AAP councillors.

"Injured councillors are being taken to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital for treatment. This is unconstitutional and we demanded the secretary to get the house adjourned. In order to please the BJP, the Lieutenant Governor should not break rules," Atishi told PTI.

AAP Councillor Praveen Kumar, who was injured in hand, claimed he was attacked by BJP MLAs in the house when he objected to the aldermen taking oath ahead of the MLAs. "They tore my clothes. It was a deadly attack. We were just protesting about the aldermen taking oath first. But they assaulted us," Kumar said.

AAP National Spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj also said that the Aam Aadmi Party will get an FIR registered for the alleged attacks on their councillors.

"Even after so much effort, not even a single AAP councillor switched sides. That's why BJP was getting 10 nominated councillors to vote unfairly. They (BJP) are even capable of saying that tomorrow the PM and the Home Minister will also vote in the Mayor election," Bhardwaj said.

AAP has alleged 13 of its councillors suffered injuries in the tussle.

AAP leader Dilip Pandey alleged that the BJP is "destroying" the constitution and democracy of the country by "taking control" of the corporation through "hooliganism." "In Delhi MCD, BJP has tried every dirty trick and failed - from delimitation and delaying elections to using their friendly uncle's office to pump up numbers. Their last resort is hooliganism, which you can now see on your TV screens," Senior AAP leader Raghav Chadha alleged.

In a press conference which was attended by party MPs Meenakshi Lekhi, Manoj Tiwari, and Parvesh Verma, the BJP alleged that its female councillors were "mobbed" and attacked by the AAP councillors.

The leaders said 6-7 councillors of BJP were injured during the meeting.

Delhi BJP media relations cell co-Incharge Vikram Mittal also said that Sharad Kapoor and Kusum Lata of BJP had undergone medical examination, and their MLC (medico-legal cases) report said that Kapoor had a fracture in his leg.

Lekhi alleged that the AAP councillors’ disruption was premeditated.

The AAP in its turn said that the oath to the aldermen was a BJP ploy to give them the right to vote.

Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva who was at the RML hospital where party councillors were being treated, said the party will lodge a police complaint in the matter.

The BJP leaders, including Sachdeva and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Bidhuri, will sit on a protest outside Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat on Saturday morning against alleged hooliganism of AAP councillors in MCD House.

In the December 2022 MCD polls, the AAP ended BJP's 15-year rule at the MCD, winning 134 of the total 250 wards. The BJP managed to win 104 wards.