New Delhi. The results of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Election are out. Aam Aadmi Party has won here. After the results, now the tug of war has intensified for the post of mayor. The special thing is that even after the defeat, BJP has claimed to make its mayor. At the same time, the Aam Aadmi Party is also looking completely confident about the post of Mayor. The point to be noted here is that the post of Mayor is not decided by the victory of the party in the elections. According to the rules of MCD, the work of making mayor is done by councilors. Anything can happen in such a situation. This is the reason why BJP is also staking its claim for the post of Mayor. Actually, some rules of MCD are such, due to which BJP is very excited about the post of Mayor. Significantly, even after the defeat in Chandigarh Municipal Corporation Election, BJP has made its mayor there.
In such a situation, let us know how the new mayor of Delhi will be elected and why only a woman will be the first mayor of the unified Delhi Municipal Corporation. According to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, it is mandatory to have a lady mayor in the first year. For the first one year, the post of mayor has been reserved for a lady councillor. In such a situation, the mayor of any party will be a woman. Apart from this, it is already a rule that for the third year there will be a mayor from a Scheduled Caste. And the post of Mayor is unreserved for the other 3 years. In this, any councilor can contest the election of mayor. The last time there was a unified MCD in 2011, the mayor was Rajni Abbi of the BJP. According to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the first meeting of the house is held after the completion of the elections, in which the process of election of the mayor is started. First there is nomination for the post of mayor and then all the councilors vote and elect the mayor. The tenure of councilors in Delhi is for 5 years.
But the term of the mayor is only for one year. Because of this the councilors elect a new mayor every year. Apart from the corporator, other people also vote in the election of mayor in Delhi Municipal Corporation. In this, 250 winning corporators, 7 Lok Sabha MPs and 3 Rajya Sabha MPs will together elect the Mayor. Apart from this, 14 MLAs nominated by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly also vote for the post of Mayor. This is the reason why it is mandatory to get 138 votes to become mayor in MCD. According to Section 53 of the MCD Act, the mayor is elected in the first meeting of every financial year. This means the first financial meeting is held in the month of April. But this year the MCD elections, which were to be held in March, were not held on time and were pushed forward after the Centre’s announcement on its integration. As per the rules, now the Commissioner of MCD will write to the LG through the Chief Secretary to convene the meeting and appoint the Presiding Officer for the election of the Mayor.
Obviously, LG will approve it after getting the green signal from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Under Section 514A of the amended Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, until a mayor is elected, a special officer may be appointed by the central government to preside over the first meeting of the party and the election of the mayor. Can manage the works of MCD. Explain that in May 2022, the Central Government had appointed IAS officer Ashwini Kumar as the Special Officer for the Integrated MCD. The Aam Aadmi Party, being the single largest party, has to decide whether it will elect the mayor for the remaining three months of this 2022-23 financial year.
If the AAP decides to do so, they will have to request the central government to hold the first meeting of the party and the swearing-in ceremony, including the appointment of a mayor, in December 2022 instead of April 2023. There is also a challenge before you that the anti-defection law does not apply in the election of mayor. In such a situation, even if your councilor votes for the BJP candidate, he will not be removed from the post. It would also be difficult to find out which councilor has changed sides. This is the reason why as soon as the results came out, AAP leaders have started alleging that BJP is trying to bring its councilors in its fold.
