No stranger to chaos: Meet MCD's newly elected Standing Committee chairperson

Indian Express

2 days ago

Eight hundred and eighty-nine days after Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena appointed Satya Sharma as the presiding officer for the mayoral elections of the newly-reunified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) at that time, he was Thursday elected as the Chairperson of the Standing Committee — cementing the BJP's return to assume full control of the civic body. The development is expected to bring to a formal close one of the most turbulent periods in the MCD's political history.
In 2023, Sharma's appointment marked the first major flashpoint at the MCD in what would become a prolonged standoff between the BJP and the AAP.
The AAP, which had won the municipal polls in December 2022, had objected to Sharma's nomination, calling it a breach of an established precedent, where the seniormost councillor is traditionally named the protem speaker or presiding officer for the first sitting of the House. Instead, Sharma, a BJP councillor from Gautampuri, was chosen by the L-G, triggering immediate pushback and setting the stage for a prolonged conflict.
That conflict would play out dramatically. Over three separate House sittings between January and February in 2023, attempts to elect a mayor collapsed into chaos — councillors hurled bottles, stormed the well, and overturned furniture as each session was adjourned without a vote to elect the mayor.
Addressing the press after one such meeting, which had been adjourned in chaos, Sharma had alleged, 'Meri baazu pe unhone (AAP councillors) mukka Maara hai, mujhe bhi chot lagi hai, baaki councillors ko bhi hurt hua hai (They punched me on my arm, I got hurt, other councillors also got hurt).' The AAP had dismissed the claims.
While AAP's Shelly Oberoi was eventually elected the mayor following a Supreme Court directive in February 2023, Sharma has since continued to be nominated as the presiding officer for subsequent mayoral elections in 2024 and 2025, reflecting the L-G's continued trust in her to oversee proceedings amid political deadlock.
Over the next two and a half years, this initial bone of contention had evolved into a series of political battles between the two parties — over Standing Committee elections, budget approvals, nominations, and procedural control.
After losing the Assembly elections in February this year, AAP lost the numerical advantage in the MCD House gradually as the BJP managed a string of defections in their favour.
In April, the BJP also won the mayoral elections, reversing the outcome of the 2022 civic polls. Yet, it was Sharma's election on Thursday as Chairperson of the MCD's Standing Committee—a body that acts like the financial backbone of the civic body, with no proposals over Rs 5 crores being able to proceed without its approval—that has given MCD's complete institutional backing to the BJP.
'I am originally a resident of Meerut, Western Uttar Pradesh, and the assembly constituencies of East Delhi have a majority of residents of Western Uttar Pradesh, which significantly influences the election results,' Sharma said.
As a three-time councillor, Sharma has held various roles in the East Delhi Municipal Corporation over the last two decades, including chairpersonships of the ethics, building, and education committees. She was the mayor of East Delhi in 2017. During her tenure, she oversaw the launch of the 7.8-MW waste-to-energy plant in Shastri Park.
Sharma's political background is also shaped by her familial ties to longstanding figures in the BJP's grassroots.
Her husband, Sanjay Sharma, is a Prathamvarsh Shikshit Swayamsevak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Sharma also claims to have been a great support in helping the BJP candidate win the Muslim-dominated Usmanpur region. Her father-in-law, Jagdish Chandra Sharma, was also an RSS volunteer since childhood and has held key organisational positions, serving as both President and General Secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in the Yamuna Vihar area of Delhi. Sharma said that both her maternal and paternal grandfathers, Rameshwar Dayal Sharma and Babu Ram Sharma, were a part of India's Independence struggle.