Five AAP councillors join BJP, election of standing committee chairman becomes interesting | News India

New Delhi, 26 August (HS). There has been a big reversal regarding the chairman of the standing committee in the Delhi Municipal Corporation. Even before the elections, 5 councilors of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have switched sides and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. In such a situation, it is clear that the Aam Aadmi Party, which has a majority in the Delhi Municipal Corporation, will not be able to easily get its chairman elected in the standing committee.

Delhi Municipal Corporation Chairman Shaili Oberoi recently asked the Municipal Commissioner to start the process of appointing the Chairman of the Standing Committee. The Standing Committee is very important in the Delhi Municipal Corporation and the Chairman of the Standing Committee has the same rights as the Chairman of the Municipal Corporation. Soon after this, on Sunday, five AAP councilors changed sides and joined the BJP. The names of these AAP councilors are – Councilor Sugandha Bidhuri from Ward-178, Pawan Sehrawat from Ward-30, Ram Chandra from Ward-28, Mamta Pawan from Ward-177 and Manju Nirmal from Ward-180. By their joining BJP, BJP will get an edge in the two zones in which it was weak.

In fact, the position of BJP in the Municipal Corporation had already become strong after the Supreme Court justified the appointment of ten aldermen by the Lieutenant Governor. After five councillors joined BJP from AAP, the position of AAP has become weak not only in Central and Narela zones. The situation has become such that when the time comes to vote for the appointment of the chairman in the permanent committee of the Municipal Corporation, then both AAP and BJP will have 9 members each in their favour. Then it will not be possible to select the chairman.

The Delhi Municipal Corporation is divided into 12 zones. One member of the standing committee is to be elected from each zone. The AAP councillors who switched sides and joined the BJP on Sunday include three from the Central zone and two from the Narela zone. As such, the number of AAP councillors in the Central zone has gone down from 13 to 10, whereas in the Narela zone, the number of BJP councillors has increased from 12 to 15. This includes two aldermen. In Narela, both had 10 members each, along with four aldermen from the BJP. Now the number of BJP here has increased from 8 to 12.

It is noteworthy that before Sunday, AAP was leading in six zones and BJP in five zones. In one zone, both were equal. Now AAP has been reduced to five zones while BJP has become ahead in seven zones. At present, AAP has three members and BJP has two members in the permanent committee. One seat is vacant. This seat has become vacant after Bansuri Swaraj went to Lok Sabha. Since, AAP can win this vacant seat. In such a situation, at the time of voting, the number of AAP in the corporation house will be four and BJP's number will be two. In this situation also, if the members from five zones of AAP are added, then this number reaches nine. In the same way, by adding the members of seven zones of BJP along with the two members of BJP already, this number is reaching nine. There are 18 members in the Municipal Corporation. Due to the number of permanent members being equal, it will not be easy to select the president. How this will happen is still a question.