Delhi mayor election on January 6; Congress says 'won't take part in it'

New Delhi: The first municipal House after the high-stakes Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls on December 4 is scheduled to take place on Friday during which all newly elected councillors will take the oath and the mayor and the deputy mayor will be elected. After the oath ceremony, the newly constituted civic body will proceed to elect the mayor, as required by section 35 of the Act.

However, the Delhi Congress has said that it will not take part in the city civic body's mayoral election slated to be held on January 6. Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary said the Delhi unit of the Congress has unanimously decided not to support the Aam Aadmi Party or the BJP in the elections for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and the leader of the house in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

"Delhiites who elected Congress councillors, voted for them to raise the issues affecting them and work for their welfare and not to fulfil the patrician agenda of AAP and BJP. Our councillors will walk out of the House before voting," he said. He further said that Congress will fight to protect the interest of the people.

"Through secret ballot, Congress selected three Councillors for the leadership of the party in the MCD. While Nazia Danish will be the leader of the party in MCD, Sheetal will be her deputy and Shagufta Chaudhary will be the chief whip," Chaudhary said.

Notably, the AAP has fielded a first-time councillor from East Patel Nagar Shelly Oberoi as its mayoral candidate, while Aaley Mohammed Iqbal, councillor from Chandni Mahal ward, will contest for the post of deputy mayor. On the other hand, the BJP has fielded Rekha Gupta and Kamal Bagdi as its candidates for elections to the posts of mayor and deputy mayor, respectively. Gupta is a three-term councillor from Shalimar Bagh and Bagdi was elected for the first time from Ram Nagar.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena nominated a BJP leader as the temporary Speaker to preside over the mayoral election on Friday, escalating the power tussle between Saxena and Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP had bagged 134 wards in the MCD poll and ended the BJP's 15-year rule in the civic body. The 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 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 on May 22, with Gyanesh Bharti and Ashwani Kumar taking charge as its municipal commissioner and special officer, respectively.