Congress to abstain, may impact committee vote

NEW DELHI: In an important development that may eventually benefit BJP, Congress on Thursday said its nine councillors would abstain from the Friday election of mayor, deputy mayor and members of the Standing Committee of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary said his party would continue to raise its voice against “anti-people policies” of BJP and AAP.
While the elections for the mayor and the deputy mayor would be direct, experts believe the Congress decision may give BJP an edge in the Standing Committee election. The voting will take place for six House members of the committee. AAP has fielded four candidates and BJP three.
“MCD follows a preferential vote system for the Standing Committee. With the current numbers, a candidate requires 36 votes to be nominated in the committee. With nine Congress councillors not taking part in the election process, it brings the number of required votes to 35,” said an expert.
Another expert also feel BJP’s three candidates are likely to get elected in the preferential system, while AAP, with 134 votes, will get three candidates elected easily, but for the fourth, it would need six more votes.
If both parties get equal numbers, and with BJP likely to have more representatives from 12 zones, the latter may have more power than AAP, experts point out.