NEW DELHI: Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan is set to get elected unopposed as a member-MLA of Delhi Waqf Board as no other legislator has filed nomination for the election scheduled on August 25.Monday was the last date of filing nomination papers.
Shinde Deepak Arjun, returning officer for the election and who is also the DM (north), confirmed that only Khan had filed nominations so far.
“Today was the last day for submitting papers. We have received only one nomination that is of Khan. After the scrutiny of his papers, a decision will be taken whether the election is required to be conducted or not,” he said.
Another official of the board, said that if Khan’s nomination is found valid after scrutiny, he would be declared elected unopposed.
The seven-member Waqf Board includes four elected members — an MLA, a current or former Member of Parliament, mutawalli (manager or custodian of a mosque) and a Bar Council member. The remaining three are nominated members, including a Delhi government officer, a social worker and a Muslim scholar.
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has five Muslim MLAs, but the member under MLA quota has always been elected unopposed, the government officials said.
The other MLAs are Shoaib Iqbal (Matia Mahal), Imran Hussain (Ballimaran), Abdul Rehman (Seelampur), and Haji Yunus (Mustafabad).After the election of member-MLA, the chairman of the Board will be elected. The members of the panel elect among them the chairman.
“Khan is likely to return as chairman of Delhi Waqf Board for the third time in a row,” said an official.
The post of member-MLA fell vacant due to Assembly elections in February. Khan who was chairman of the Board, ceased to be a member -MLA after the announcement of the polls.
AAP MLA served as board’s chairman twice
Scrutiny of the nomination paper will be conducted on Tuesday and the last date of withdrawal of nomination is August 19. Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan has served as the chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board on two seperate occasions earlier.
The election is scheduled for August 25 and so far no other legislator has stepped up to file their nomination for the election.