Congress mayoral candidate Farhad Suri today alleged that the BJP-ruled South Delhi Municipal Corporation was resorting to irregular electoral practice ahead of the high-stake polls slated for Friday.
The senior party leader is currently Leader of Opposition in SDMC.
In a press conference here, he alleged that the ruling party was "pressurising" and "influencing" its councillors, to vote for BJP or face action. He also claimed that "huge money was also being given to the councillors".
Suri, who served as a Mayor during the time of the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), also alleged that BJP had "abused its position" to influence municipal officials and carried out "scrutiny of the ballots".
In the last mayoral polls in 2013 which witnessed high drama, BJP councillor Khushi Ram Chunar had won the top municipal post by a solitary vote. Congress had managed to keep the post of the Deputy Mayor, with Praveen Rana edging out Bir Singh of BJP's ally Bahujan Samaj Party by 13 votes.
Currently, the 104-member SDMC House is down to 97 councillors as the rest left to contest Delhi Assembly elections. And, now with 5 MLAs and 5 MPs, there will be 107 electors. BJP has 50 councillors and Congress 35.
Suri, today also wrote to Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, seeking his immediate intervention in the matter to ensure a free and fair elections.
"This is breach of secrecy ballot..." he alleged, and added, "Voting should either be done by electronic voting machines (EVMs) and in the event this is not feasible a voter should not be allowed to carry an instrument whereby the photo of the ballot paper can be taken."
SDMC Standing Committee Chairman Subhash Arya and Suri's BJP rival candidate in the poll, asked, "If we had known who cross-voted during last mayoral polls, would we have not taken actions against them."
The unified MCD was trifurcated in 2012 into North, East and South Corporations.
