Delhi Mayor elections postponed again as House gets adjourned sine die amid protests

New Delhi [India], January 24 (ANI): Elections for the Delhi Mayor were on Tuesday postponed after the House was adjourned sine die following a ruckus between Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors.
The house was adjourned after Presiding officer Satya Sharma said the proceedings cannot be conducted amid sloganeering from both AAP and BJP councillors.
Union Minister Meenakashi Lekhi said the ruckus in the house is wrong and democratic principles must be followed.
"We were sitting in the House to vote since 11 am and when finally, the time came, a ruckus began in the House. This is wrong, democratic principles must be followed, " Union Minister Meenakashi Lekhi said.
BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said AAP doesn't want to let elections happen because of which Delhi is suffering.
"AAP doesn't want MCD mayor election to be held. The behaviour of the AAP party is undemocratic and I totally condemn it," said Tiwari.
Meanwhile, AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj demanded the mayoral election to be held today itself claiming that the BJP is scared as an AAP candidate is sure to win the mayor post.
"The BJP is doing this experiment in Delhi, if you lose the election, then you should not let the government to be formed in that state. And through the President, you should run your own government at the Centre but is doing it in the Municipal Corporation. For the last 2 months, they are running the MCD through this municipal corporation through the Lieutenant Governor and they will continue to do this," said Bhardwaj.
However, BJP's Ravinder Singh Negi said that AAP is creating a ruckus and not allowing to have peaceful election of MCD mayor.
"AAP councillor had a conflict with women and abused our councillor. What is wrong with the AAP. Why are they creating a ruckus and not allowing to have a peaceful election of MCD mayor," said Negi.
BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri said AAP is afraid that their councillors are not with them and they will lose the election.
"As soon as we reached and started sitting, they started making noise. In a democracy, will elections be conducted in the presence of police officers? AAP are afraid that their councillors are not with them and that they will lose the election. Arvind Kejriwal is making people do all these bad things because he has the habit of levelling allegations," said Bidhuri.
Proceedings of the House began today nearly three weeks after the process to elect the new mayor was aborted on January 6 following acrimonious scenes between the AAP and the BJP.
Visuals from the House earlier today showed the heavy deployment of security personnel, including in the well of the House.
The oath-taking ceremony began at the Civic Centre here with Presiding officer Satya Sharma of the BJP administering the oath first to aldermen, the members nominated by the Lt Governor before administering the oath to the elected councillors.
All 250 councillors and 10 nominated members completed the oath-taking process before a break was announced.
After the break, there was a commotion between AAP and BJP councillors.
Earlier, visuals showed the heavy presence of marshals inside the House.
Sharing a video, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said, "Today BJP has brought force with sticks to take possession of Municipal Corporation. Have you seen this in any House?"
This is the second time in a month that the election to Delhi mayor was disrupted. On January 6, the mayoral elections at the MCD House were postponed after clashes erupted between AAP and BJP councillors.
The AAP has fielded Shelly Oberoi as their candidate for the post of mayor while BJP has nominated Rekha Gupta. Aaley Mohammad Iqbal is the deputy mayor candidate of AAP. (ANI)