The Municipal Corporation of Delhi will convene for the fourth time on Wednesday to elect its new mayor. This comes after the Supreme Court intervened with regard to holding the elections after three failed attempts.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena gave his approval to convene the municipal house to hold elections to the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee, last week. The apex court too have ordered the issuance of a notice within 24 hours for convening the first meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to fix the date of elections for the mayor, the deputy mayor and the members of the standing committee of the civic body.
The court's order followed a petition filed by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi, who had sought an early conduct of the election. In a breather for the AAP, the court had also ordered against the nominated members casting voting in the elections.
According to the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, 1957, the mayor and the deputy mayor are to be elected in the very first session of the House after the civic polls. However, it has been over two months since the municipal elections were held on December 4 last.
A month after the high-stakes municipal polls, the House had convened for the first time on January 6. It had adjourned following acrimonious exchanges between members of the BJP and the AAP.
The second and third meetings called on January 24 and February 6 also failed to carry out the exercise, and were both adjourned without electing a mayor, triggering much political bickering among parties in the two months since the civic polls.
The crisis also impacted the annual budget proceedings and the schedule of taxes for year 2023-24 was passed by the Special Officer of the MCD on February 15, since the deliberative wing has not come into place.
The AAP had emerged as a clear winner in the December 4 polls, bagging 134 wards and ending the BJP's 15-year rule in the civic body. The BJP won 104 wards to finish second, while the Congress won nine seats in the 250-member Municipal House. The electoral college for the election of mayor comprises the 250 elected councillors, seven Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi and 14 MLAs.
(With inputs from PTI)