Kejriwal calls for electing Dalit mayor immediately in Delhi mayoral polls

New Delhi: AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday urged the ruling dispensation in MCD to hold the mayoral polls and ensure a Dalit community member is elected to power.

He alleged that the elections have been pending due to a "conspiracy" of the opposition BJP to deprive the Scheduled Caste community of its rights.

Addressing an event to regularise 607 sanitisation workers, Mayor Shelly Oberoi, read out a letter from Kejriwal to the public saying the AAP wants elections to be held immediately.

"This year (third term of AAP in MCD), the mayor from the SC community was to be elected in Delhi Municipal Corporation. After coming out of jail, I came to know that as part of a conspiracy, they did not even conduct the mayor's elections behind my back. They deliberately took away the rights of the people of the SC community. This cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. I request you to immediately conduct mayor's elections and ensure that the SC community gets its rights," Oberoi quoted Kejriwal as saying in Hindi.

Kejriwal was scheduled to attend the event but was unable to do so due to an emergency. His message was delivered by Oberoi during her speech.

Mayoral elections have been pending since April due to the non-appointment of a presiding officer by the LG VK Saxena who earlier said, he did not "deemed it fit" to make the decision in the absence of the now former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was lodged in Tihar in connection with excise policy linked money laundering case.

Kejriwal was released from jail on bail in September. The third term of five-year tenure in MCD is reserved for a Dalit community member.

In the letter, Kejriwal also claimed and credited the AAP for ensuring the timely disbursal of salaries of the sanitisation workers under its tenure.

"Since the formation of our government in MCD, sanitation workers get their salaries in the first week of every month. Earlier, our poor brothers did not get salaries for many months and they had to stage protests. But now they get their salary on time every month," it read.

Congratulating the workers, Chief Minister Atishi claimed AAP has regularised 10,000 sanitisation workers under its tenure in the past two years in Delhi.

"If there's any government who is fulfilling the dream of Lord Valmiki, it is AAP, which in the past 10 years has consistently worked on empowering people with the might of pen by giving them quality education," she said calling the regularisation as a gift on the occasion of Valmiki Jayanti which will be celebrated on October 17.

During the event, 607 sanitisation workers were handed over job regularisation certificates by the chief minister. The event was also attended by Deputy Mayor Aley Mohammad Iqbal, leader of the House Mukesh Goel, Leader of Opposition Raja Iqbal along with MCD officials.