Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena named BJP councilor Satya Sharma, the former mayor of East Delhi, as the presiding officer for the elections on Wednesday as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) prepares to pick a new mayor and deputy mayor on Thursday afternoon.
The Aam Aadmi Party has criticized Saxena’s action for failing to designate the current mayor or the most senior council member to supervise the election process to guarantee “parity and fairness.” Sharma, a Gautam Puri ward councilor, had been the presiding officer in the mayoral elections held in December 2022.
The seven-month-delayed mayoral election is set to take place at MCD House at 2:00 PM. Candidates from the Schedule Caste are eligible to run for the positions of Mayor and Deputy Mayor this year.
“As they did during the Chandigarh mayoral election, where they engaged in vote robbery by designating one of their councilors as the presiding officer, we hope that the BJP will refrain from any foul play, respect the Constitution, adhere to the law, and refrain from any unethical action or murder democracy,” the AAP said in a statement.
The Delhi BJP spokesperson, Praveen Shankar Kapoor, has criticized the BJP for criticizing statutory appointments made in connection with the mayoral race. “Based on previous experiences, it seems that the AAP leadership is opposed to electing a member of the Scheduled Caste as mayor, and they will cause some sort of complication to delay the election tomorrow as well,” Kapoor stated on Wednesday.
The council members have been prohibited from taking cell phones to the House as part of election procedures. Before the polls, MCD officials stated that all members would be frisked at the entrance. The frisking procedure caused the AAP members to abstain from the September standing committee election.