After 2 failed attempts for Delhi mayor, municipal House to convene again

The Delhi municipal House is set to convene on Monday to elect a mayor for the city after failing to complete the poll in two previous attempts.

According to the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, 1957, the mayor and the deputy mayor are to be elected in the very first House that convenes after the civic polls. However, it's been two months since the municipal elections were held, and Delhi is still to get a mayor.

The first two sessions -- held on January 6 and January 24 -- were adjourned by the presiding officer without electing a mayor following a ruckus and acrimonious exchanges between the members of the BJP and the AAP.

While the first session of the 250-member House after the December 4 civic polls went in vain, in the second session, the nominated members and elected members took oath.

After the oath-taking exercise, the second municipal House was adjourned till the next date by Presiding Officer and BJP councillor Satya Sharma.

While BJP members had walked out of the chamber shouting anti-AAP and anti-Arvind Kejriwal slogans, the AAP members held a peaceful protest in the House for nearly five hours.

Before dispersing from the Civic Centre, senior leaders of the AAP, including Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, told reporters that by "not allowing" the mayoral election to take place, the BJP was "strangulating democracy" and "starting a dangerous tradition".

AAP leader and party MLA Atishi had appealed to Lt Governor V K Saxena to ensure the election for mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee is held at the earliest.

Later, AAP's mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi had moved the Supreme Court over the delay in holding the mayoral election.

Now, the third session of the House is slated for Monday to elect a mayor.

The AAP had emerged as a clear winner in Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) 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.

Rekha Gupta is the BJP's mayoral candidate.

The nominees for the post of deputy mayor are -- Aaley Mohammad Iqbal (AAP) and Kamal Bagri (BJP).

Besides mayor and deputy mayor, six members of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) standing committee are also slated to be elected during the session.

The MCD came into being in April 1958. Its mayor wielded influence and carried 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 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 December 4 MCD election was the first after the redrawing of the wards.

The post of mayor in Delhi sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, second for the open category, third for the reserved category, and the remaining two also being for the open category.