Delhi Mayor asks for postponement of standing committee member election

Just an hour ahead of the poll to elect the last vacant standing committee seat, Mayor Shelly Oberoi directed MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar to stall the election on Friday so that it could be held on October 5, as per her earlier instructions.

Following disruption over frisking of the councillors on Thursday, the election to the MCD Standing Committee was postponed till October 5 by Mayor Shelly Oberoi.

Later Lt Governor VK Saxena, however, overturned the postponement of the elections and directed MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar to hold the election on Friday at 1 pm.

In a letter, Oberoi asked the commissioner to ensure due legal compliance in holding the standing committee election on October 5.

She also asked him to declare the poll scheduled for Friday to be "illegal and unlawful".

Oberoi, in her response to the commissioner, termed the LG's directive unconstitutional. "This order is illegal, unconstitutional as it is a gross violation of the statutory scheme of the DMC Act and