Fresh clashes erupted between councillors of the BJP and AAP after Delhi mayor Shelly Oberoi declared that one vote cast during the election to the standing committee of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Friday, was "invalid". The mayor alleged that a few members of the saffron party inflicted a life-threatening attack on her.
"When I was announcing the standing committee election result, they (BJP councillors) pushed my chair and attacked me. BJP councillors Ravi Negi, Arjun Marwah, Chandan Choudhary and others inflicted life-threatening attack on me," she alleged.
Following the clashes, the mayor adjourned the House and announced that the election to six members of the standing committee of the MCD will be held afresh on February 27 at 11 am as the ballot papers used on Friday have been "torn".
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Addressing a press conference here, she alleged that her colleague Ashu Thakur was also attacked by another BJP councillor. "I was dragged by the scarf from the dais to an exit door, and if the cloth had tightened longer, it could have suffocated me to death," Thakur said.
The Delhi BJP shared a video on Twitter which showed the councillors exchanging blows. They alleged that, "Atishi said something in the ear of this goon of AAP and he obeyed his mentor and started beating BJP councilors!"
The house reconvened at 11 am yesterday after it was adjourned earlier following pandemonium triggered by clashes between AAP and BJP councillors. The sitting, punctuated by over a dozen adjournments, vociferous protests by BJP members, high-voltage drama and high-decibel sloganeering, spilled over to the next day until the mayor adjourned it.
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On February 17, the top court ordered issuing a notice within 24 hours for convening the first meeting of the MCD to fix the date of elections for the mayor, deputy mayor and members of the standing committee.
(With inputs from PTI)
