After ruckus, Delhi MCD to reconvene today to elect first sole mayor in decade
4 min read . Updated: 24 Jan 2023, 06:32 AM IST
Premium- This second round comes after the proceedings were disrupted on 6 January with a ruckus happened between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members.
The civic body will meet again today i.e. on 24 January to elect the mayor and deputy mayor. This second round comes after the proceedings were disrupted on 6 January with a ruckus happened between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members.
Today, the Lieutenant Governor-nominated members and 10 aldermen will take the oath of office today. Hoping that this time the house will go without any disruptions, Presiding Officer Satya Sharma said the nominated members and the aldermen will take the oath first as per the agenda. After the aldermen and the nominated members, other members will take the oath.
"As per the agenda, nominated members and alderman will take oath first. Then other members will take the oath. I don't think the AAP will create such an issue because it is their loss. I am hopeful we will be able to elect the Mayor tomorrow," she said.
The mayor and deputy mayor are to be elected in the very first house that convenes after a municipal poll, which could not happen on January 6 as the house was adjourned following a ruckus between the AAP and BJP members.
BJP councillor Satya Sharma, who was appointed as the presiding officer, said all preparations for the second house have been done.
"We are ready for Tuesday. I have informed the LG and his MCD secretary about the ruckus of the last time," Sharma said. The maiden meeting of the newly elected MCD council on January 6 was adjourned without mayor and the deputy mayor amid loud protests by AAP councillors over the presiding officer's decision to administer oath to the 10 aldermen first.
Aldermen refers to people who are experts in their fields. However, they do not have voting rights in the mayoral election. The agenda of the January 24 meeting mentioned that councillors and members nominated as per DMC Act 1957 (amended in 2022) will take the oath.
“Councillors and members nominated as per DMC Act 1957 (amended in 2022) will take the oath, followed by the election for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee," says the agenda.
The civic polls were held on December 4 and the counting of votes took place on December 7. The AAP had emerged as a clear winner in the polls, bagging 134 wards and ending the BJP's 15-year rule in the civic body. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 104 wards to finish second, while the Congress won nine seats in the 250-member municipal house which will convene on January 24 for the second time after the 2022 civic polls.
Shelly Oberoi and Ashu Thakur are AAP's contenders for the post of mayor, with Oberoi said to have a stronger claim to the post. BJP has nominated Rekha Gupta as its contender for the post.
The nominees for the post of deputy mayor are Aaley Mohammad Iqbal and Jalaj Kumar from AAP. Kamal Bagri has been nominated from BJP for the deputy mayor's role. Seven candidates are in the fray for 6 posts on the Standing Committee. Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Amil Malik, Raminder Kaur, Mohini Jeenwal and Sarika Chowdhary while BJP has Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Gajendra Daral and Pankaj Luthra as its candidates for the Standing Committee.
Delhi is set to get a woman mayor and she will step into the footsteps of freedom fighter Aruna Asaf Ali who was chosen to the top post in 1958 when the Municipal Corporation of Delhi came into being.
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 the open category, third for the reserved category, and the remaining two also being in the open category
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.
In 2022, the Centre brought a 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, Delhi will get a mayor for the city as a whole after a gap of 10 years. The MCD headquarters is housed in the towering Civic Centre in the central Delhi.
It had begun its journey in 1958 from the historic 1860s-era Town Hall in Old Delhi and was shifted to the swanky complex in April 2010.
(With inputs from agencies)