Delhi will get its new Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Leader of the House in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Friday after the high-stakes civic polls held on December 4. All the newly elected councilors will also take oath during this period. First House meeting.
The AAP had won 134 wards in the civic polls, ending the BJP’s 15-year rule in the civic body. The saffron party won 104 wards, while the Congress got nine seats in the 250-member municipal house, which will be convened for the first time after the 2022 MCD polls.
Let’s know about the MCD Mayor election:
• Three nominations – two from AAP and one from BJP – were received for the post of Mayor of Delhi. However, an AAP candidate is reportedly the back-up candidate.
• December 27 was the last date for filing nominations for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the MCD’s standing committee.
• The candidates for the post of mayor are Shaili Oberoi and Ashu Thakur (AAP) and Rekha Gupta (BJP). Oberoi is the main contender of AAP.
• Candidates for the post of Deputy Mayor are Ale Mohammad Iqbal and Jalaj Kumar (AAP) and Kamal Bagri (BJP).
• Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has named BJP councilor Satya Sharma as the presiding officer for the first House meeting to be held on Friday for the election of MCD Mayor. Reacting to the appointment, AAP accused the BJP of being bent on destroying all democratic traditions and institutions.
• The office of mayor in Delhi sees five single-year terms on a rotating basis, with the first year reserved for women, the second for the open category, the third for the reserved category, and the remaining two also in the open category.
• The Delhi Congress will not participate in the mayoral election of the civic body, its chief Anil Chowdhary said on Thursday. He said the Delhi unit of Congress has unanimously decided not to support AAP or BJP in the elections to the posts of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Leader of the House in MCD.
• “Delhiites electing Congress councilors voted them to raise issues affecting them and work for their welfare and not to fulfill the patrician agenda of AAP and BJP. Our councilors will walkout from the house before voting. Danish will be the leader of the party in the MCD, Sheetal will be his deputy and Shagufta Chowdhary will be the chief whip.
About MCD
The MCD came into existence in April 1958 and its mayor wielded influential power and enjoyed a great deal of prestige until 2012, when the corporation was split into three separate civic bodies, each with its own mayor.
But, in 2022, the Center brought legislation to integrate 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 limited the total number. Had done it. The number of wards stood at 250, down from 272 wards earlier. In this way, Delhi will get a mayor for the entire city after a gap of 10 years after the election of the mayor to be held on January 6.
This was also the first municipal election after the redrawing of wards in the previous year, an exercise necessitated after the Center brought in a law in Parliament to merge 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 Municipal Commissioner and Officer on Special Duty, respectively.
The government had said that the total number of seats reserved for members of the Scheduled Castes in the MCDs in proportion to their numbers has also been fixed at 42.
Earlier, the delimitation exercise in Delhi was last conducted in 2016 and considering a variation of 10 to 15 per cent, the number of wards was capped at 272 each with an average population of 60,000. The civic elections were earlier to be held in April.
(With inputs from PTI)
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