Anurag Kumar
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will elect a new mayor and deputy mayor for the current fiscal year despite a feud between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) impeding the formation of key instruments of the civic body, without which it has been unable to perform some of its key tasks and participate in the decision-making process.
The MCD, one of the largest civic organizations in the world, was unified by the central government in May of last year to promote administrative efficiency and fiscal discipline. The MCD elections were conducted in December of last year, and the AAP emerged victorious with 134 out of a total of 250 wards. The January meeting of the House to elect the mayor and deputy mayor was postponed three times due to political differences that manifested as violence and disorderly behavior. The elections were ultimately held on February 22, and both positions were won by AAP candidates.
However, their terms expired on March 31, as the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act of 1957 requires new elections for the position of mayor to be conducted at the beginning of the fiscal year in April.
In the elections on Wednesday, incumbent mayor Shelly Oberoi of the AAP will face Greater Kailash (GK) BJP councillor Shikha Roy. East Delhi’s Sonia Vihar ward incumbent deputy mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal of the AAP will face Soni Pandey of the BJP.
On Monday, lieutenant governor VK Saxena authorized Mukesh Goyal, the senior-most councillor and AAP House leader, to preside over Wednesday’s session.
According to a senior municipal corporation official, until the proceedings commence and a general call-in is made, all candidates may withdraw from the race.
“Goyal will then oversee the secret ballot election procedure for mayor. We have installed polling booths within the House chamber to maintain the confidentiality of the process. “Once the new mayor is elected, the mayor will preside over the elections for deputy mayor,” the official added.
The mayoral elections are being conducted at a time when the municipal corporation is in limbo, as the civic body has yet to elect the influential Standing Committee, which controls the municipal corporation’s budget, and zonal ward committees, which play a crucial role in local civic governance. Also, courts are involved in two significant matters that will affect the corporate structure. While the Delhi high court hears a petition challenging the February 24 Standing Committee elections, the Supreme Court hears an AAP petition challenging the LG’s nomination of 10 aldermen.
Monday, the high court permitted the mayor to file a response to the petition and set the date for May 3; the Supreme Court set the date for May 2.
AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai stated on Tuesday that the people of Delhi have given AAP a clear mandate and that the AAP mayoral candidate will be elected. “The BJP is attempting to win over AAP councillors, but neither the Delhi administration nor its municipal arm will be impacted by their ploy. They attempted every trick before, but the AAP’s candidate will be elected mayor once more,” he added.
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Praveen Shankar Kapoor, a spokesman for the Delhi BJP, stated that the party anticipates a fair election in which the presiding officer plays no partisan role and acts in accordance with constitutional precedents. “The corporation’s administration and development efforts have ceased due to the AAP’s disarray. They are preventing the MCD’s standing committee from being formed. Without the formation of the standing committee, no administrative work can be performed by MCD,” he stated.
Elections for mayor and vice mayor of the MCD are conducted by secret ballot, and anti-defection laws do not apply. The electoral college consists of 250 councillors, 14 MLAs, and 10 representatives. After capturing 134 of 250 municipal wards in the municipal elections held on December 4, the AAP had a distinct numerical advantage.
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On Monday, Sunita, a Dwarka C ward AAP councillor, joined the BJP in the presence of senior BJP leaders from Delhi. The AAP has nominated thirteen MLA candidates, while the BJP has only nominated one. However, Mehrauli MLA Naresh Kumar has replaced Kalkaji MLA Atishi. The BJP has seven Lok Sabha representatives, while the AAP has three Rajya Sabha representatives. Assuming no cross-voting, AAP has 150 votes out of 274 in an electoral college.
Only eight mayors have served for more than a year in MCD’s history; if elected, Oberoi will become the ninth such mayor.
Shamnath served as mayor of Delhi from 1960 to 1962, followed by Nuruddin Ahmen (1965-1967), Hansraj Gupta (1967-1972), Kedarnath Sahani (1972-1975), Rajender Gupta (1977-1980), Mahender Singh Sathi (1983-1990), Shanti Desai (2000-2002), and Aarti Mehra (2007-2009), according to MCD records. After its trifurcation in 2012, MCD had 30 mayors until 2022, but none were re-elected for a second term.
