Delhi MCD Elections: Who Will Be Delhi Mayor and What Challenges Does AAP Face?

The Aam Aadmi Party has to contend with electing a mayor for a unified Delhi for the first time in over 10 years.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, while campaigning for MCD elections.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

The Delhi Municipal Corporation elections ended with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) breaking the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 15-year-long tenure in power in the civic body.

Now, the AAP, which first formed the government seven years ago and got re-elected in 2020, is faced with a decision it hasn't had to deal with in its tenure so far — the election of a mayor for a unified Delhi Municipal Corporation, and by extension, a mayor for all of Delhi.

But this process comes with its own share of challenges and changes. What goes into electing a mayor for the capital of India? When was the last time Delhi elected a mayor? And what's likely to happen next?

Let's find out.

A Brief History of the Delhi Municipal Corporation

The Delhi Municipal Corporation came into existence in 1958, created by the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.

At the time, it had 80 councillors and was created by consolidating the many different civic bodies in the capital under one head. This included bodies such as the Delhi District Board, the Delhi Road Transport Authority, the Delhi State Electricity Board, and the Delhi Joint Water and Sewage Board.

Over time, the Corporation grew to 272 councillors, after delimitation exercises broke up Delhi into smaller parts. The tenure of the MCD lasts for a period of five years from election.

This unified MCD continued till 2012, when, as an experiment to handle the growing population, the Delhi Municipal Corporation was trifurcated into the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, to see if this made management easier.

The trifurcation continued for 10 years, till May 2022 when the three bodies were reunited. In October 17 2022, a delimitation order was issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the 272 councillors and wards were reduced to 250, and the three municipal corporations were fully unified once again as the Delhi Municipal Corporation.

These 250 seats are the ones contested on 4 December 2022, which the AAP has now decisively won.

AAP's victory breaks the BJP's 15-year tenure in power in the MCD. The BJP has stayed in power in the MCD since elections in 2007, for three terms.

How Is The Delhi Mayor Elected?

According to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the MCD is supposed to hold elections every five years, to decide which party will stay in power in the corporation.

At the start of every financial year, the Act, under section 35, mandates that the corporation must elect a mayor at its first meeting of the financial year.

The mayor's tenure lasts for a period of one year, and the act mandates that the first year of a party's tenure, it must elect a woman for the post of mayor, and for the third year, it must elect a member of a Scheduled Caste from its councillors.

The last time a unified MCD had a mayor was the BJP's Rajni Abbi in 2011.

An election for the mayor will only be held if the other parties, namely the BJP and Congress, oppose the candidate chosen by the AAP, and field their own candidates for the post of Delhi Mayor. If there's only one candidate from the party in power, in this case the AAP, they will be appointed mayor. In case of an election, the candidate with the most votes will be elected mayor.

If there's a tie, the special commissioner appointed to oversee the election will allow the tie to be broken by a special draw of lots, with the candidate whose name is drawn receiving an extra tie-breaking vote.

What Are The Delhi Mayor's Duties and Powers?

• Chapter five of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act states that the Corporation shall meet every month at least once, to conduct its business.

• The mayor, however, has the power to convene a special meeting of the Corporation, upon a requisition in writing, by not less than one-fourth of the total number of councillors.

• Further, any business during the meetings can only take place if a quorum of more than one-fifth of the councillors is present. If there's no quorum, it's the mayor's duty to suspend the meeting till a quorum is reached.

• The mayor is also the presiding officer in all meetings of the Delhi Municipal Corporation. In the mayor's absence, the deputy mayor takes over the duties of the mayor.

• The mayor will also have a second vote or a casting vote in case votes end in a tie.

• The mayor has the power to disallow any questions that, in their opinion, is in contravention of the provisions mentioned in the act for asking questions during meetings.

• During the meetings of the corporation, the mayor can ask councillors whose conduct are "grossly disorderly" to withdraw from the meeting and suspend them from attending meetings for a period of 15 days. The mayor can also cancel this suspension at any time.

• The mayor also has the power to, in case of a grave disorder, adjourn meetings till later.

• Any questions posed to the special commissioner must be answered by the commissioner, unless exempted by the mayor.

• All councillors must, within 30 days of taking office, submit a declaration of their assets and family's assets to the mayor. Failing this they could be disqualified from their posts as councillors.

The Challenges For AAP's Mayor Election

The AAP is faced with a couple of challenges in its election of a mayor. First, the mayor is normally elected in April, at the winning party's first meeting of the financial year.

But the elections, which were scheduled for 9 March, were delayed following the Centre's announcement of the unification of the three MCDs.

The delay in elections means that AAP has to decide whether it will elect a mayor for the remaining three months of the financial year.

If AAP decides to do so, they'll next have to approach the Central government with a request to change the schedule of the party's first meeting as well as the mayor and deputy mayor's appointment and oath-taking ceremonies from April to December, since the elections only took place in December.

In response to the postponement of elections, which were slated for March, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called out the Centre's choice and timing of the announcement, saying that the exercise could have been done at any point in the previous seven years, but that the BJP chose to write to the Election Commission in March to delay the polls.

Under section 514A of the amended Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, till a mayor is elected, a Special Officer can be appointed by the Centre, to disperse of the MCD's functions till the first party meeting and mayoral election.

The Centre appointed 1992-batch IAS officer Ashwani Kumar as the special officer in the unified MCD in May 2022.