MCD mayor poll: LG appoints BJP councillor as presiding officer

New Delhi: Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena on Thursday nominated BJP councillor Satya Sharma as the presiding officer for the first House meeting on June 6 to elect the mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Reacting to the appointment, the Aam Aadmi Party accused the BJP of being hell-bent on destroying all democratic traditions and institutions.

The first municipal House after the high-stakes civic polls on December 4 is scheduled to take place on Friday during which all newly elected councillors will take oath and the mayor and the deputy mayor will be elected.

"The Lt. Governor of National Capital Territory of Delhi under section 77 of the Act is further pleased to nominate Satya Sharma, Councillor, Ward No.226 to preside over the meeting for the election of the Mayor.

"She will be administered oath/affirmation as per section 32 of the Act, by Santosh Kumar Rai, District Magistrate, New Delhi. The other councillors will be administered oath (affirmation by the Presiding Officer)," read a notification.

After the oath ceremony, the newly constituted civic body will proceed to elect the Mayor, as required by section 35 of the Act.

Three nominations -- two from the AAP and one from the BJP -- have been received for the post of mayor, MCD officials said.

One candidate of the AAP is a back-up candidate, party sources said.

The nominees for the post of mayor are -- Shelly Oberoi and Ashu Thakur (AAP), and Rekha Gupta (BJP). Oberoi is AAP's main contender.

The nominees for the post of deputy mayor are  -- Aaley Mohammad Iqbal and Jalaj Kumar (AAP), and Kamal Bagri (BJP).

"The mayor so elected will then assume the chair and proceed to conduct the election of the Deputy Mayor and six members of the Standing Committee as required under section 35(1) and 45(1)(i) of the Act respectively," the notification added.

The post of mayor in Delhi sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second for the open category, third for the reserved category, and the remaining two also being in the open category.

Reacting to the notification, AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj tweeted, "It is the tradition that the senior most member of House is nominated as protem Speaker or presiding officer. But BJP is hell bent destroying all democratic traditions and Institutions." The mayoral poll is slated to take place a month after the counting of votes took place on December 7.

The AAP had bagged 134 wards in the MCD polls and ended the BJP's 15-year rule in the civic body. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 104 wards to finish second, while the Congress won nine seats in the 250-member municipal House which will convene on January 6 for the first time after the 2022 civic polls.

This was also the first municipal elections after the redrawing of the wards in the year gone by, the exercise being necessitated after the Centre brought a legislation in Parliament to unify the three local bodies.

The unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi came into effect from May 22, with Gyanesh Bharti and Ashwani Kumar taking charge as its municipal commissioner and special officer, respectively.