Delhi will get its new mayor, deputy mayor and the leader of the house in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Friday after the high-stakes civic polls that were held on December 4. All newly elected councillors will also take an oath during the first House meeting.
The AAP had won 134 wards in the civic elections and ended the 15-year rule of the BJP in the civic body. The saffron party bagged 104 wards, while the Congress got nine seats in the 250-member municipal House which will convene for the first time after the 2022 MCD polls.
Here’s all about the MCD mayoral elections:
• Three nominations — two from the AAP and one from the BJP — were received for the post of Delhi mayor. However, one candidate of the AAP is reportedly a back-up candidate.
• The last date to file nominations for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee of the MCD was December 27.
• The nominees for the post of mayor are — Shelly Oberoi and Ashu Thakur (AAP), and Rekha Gupta (BJP). Oberoi is AAP’s main contender.
• The nominees for the post of deputy mayor are — Aaley Mohammad Iqbal and Jalaj Kumar (AAP), and Kamal Bagri (BJP).
• Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena has nominated BJP councillor Satya Sharma as the presiding officer for the first House meeting on Friday to elect the mayor of the MCD. Reacting to the appointment, the AAP accused the BJP of being hell-bent on destroying all democratic traditions and institutions.
• The post of mayor in Delhi sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second for open category, third for reserved category, and the remaining two also being in the open category.
• The Delhi Congress will not take part in the city civic body’s mayoral election, its chief Anil Chaudhary said on Thursday. He said the Delhi unit of the Congress has unanimously decided not to support the AAP or the BJP in the elections for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and the leader of the house in the MCD.
• “Delhiites who elected Congress councillors, voted for them to raise the issues affecting them and work for their welfare and not to fulfil the patrician agenda of AAP and BJP. Our councillors will walk out of the House before voting,” he said, adding that the Congress will fight to protect the interest of the people. “Through secret ballot, Congress selected three Councillors for the leadership of the party in the MCD. While Nazia Danish will be the leader of the party in MCD, Sheetal will be her deputy and Shagufta Chaudhary will be the chief whip,” he said.
About MCD
The MCD had come into being in April 1958 and its mayor wielded influential power and carried a huge prestige till 2012 when the corporation was spilt into three separate civic bodies, each having its own mayor.
But, in 2022, the Centre brought legislation to unify the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (104 wards), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (104 wards) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (64 wards) into a single entity, though it had capped the total number of wards at 250, down from 272 wards earlier. Thus, after the mayoral poll on January 6, Delhi will get a mayor for the city as a whole after a gap of 10 years.
This was also the first municipal elections after the redrawing of the wards in the year gone by, the exercise being necessitated after the Centre brought a legislation in Parliament to unify the three local bodies.
The unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi came into effect from May 22, with Gyanesh Bharti and Ashwani Kumar taking charge as its municipal commissioner and special officer, respectively.
The total number of seats reserved for members of the Scheduled Castes in the MCD in proportion to their number is also determined to be 42, the government had said.
Prior to this, the delimitation exercise in Delhi was last conducted in 2016 and the number of wards was kept at 272 with each having an average population of 60,000 considering a variation of 10 to 15 per cent. Civic polls were earlier slated to be held in April.
(with inputs from PTI)
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