Citing corruption in party, AAP MCD councillor Pawan Sehrawat joins BJP

Moments before the House of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was set to reconvene to elect six members of its apex decision-making Standing Committee, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Pawan Sehrawat joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday citing corruption in the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.

Sehrawat is a Bawana ward councillor. BJP addressed a press conference on Friday, where BJP leader Harshdeep Malhotra made the announcement.

Sehrawat also alleged that he was distressed as the AAP councillors were instructed to create a ruckus in the MCD House meeting.

The AAP councillor from Bawana was welcomed to the BJP fold at the party's Delhi unit office by working president Virendra Sachdeva and general secretary Harsh Malhotra.

Many other Delhi BJP leaders were present on the occasion. Malhotra said there was "dissent" among AAP cocouncillors and that is the reason they were instructed to carry mobile phones while voting for standing committee members to check cross-voting.

Sehrawat was elected as a councillor in the 2017 MCD by-elections, representing the AAP. Sehrawat has been actively involved in the development work of his constituency and has undertaken various initiatives to improve the living conditions of the people in the area.

Earlier, AAP leaders Shelly Oberoi and Aaley Mohammad Iqbal on Wednesday were elected as new Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Delhi.

AAP's Shelly Oberoi defeated BJP candidate Rekha Gupta by 34 votes to emerge victorious in the mayoral polls while Iqbal defeated BJP's Kamal Bagri by a margin of 31 votes. However, the civic body witnessed chaos during the election of members to the standing committee.

BJP councillors tried to attack me while conducting standing committee elections, alleged the newly elected Mayor Shelly Oberoi amid ruckus between BJP & AAP members inside the MCD house. The high-stakes election were held after being cancelled for three times in the past two months. The elections were previously adjourned on January 6 and 24, and February 6 without electing the mayor and deputy mayor.