Process initiated for next MCD mayor elections

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has initiated the procedure to choose a brand new mayor, after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Shelly Oberoi finished her 38-day tenure on the submit, officers privy to the improvement stated on Monday.

Oberoi had an surprisingly truncated tenure because the MCD annual cycle begins offevolved from April 1. This cycle became impacted ultimate yr because of the unification of the 3 erstwhile municipal agencies and the delimitation of wards, delaying the elections to the civic frame from April to December. After numerous failed attempts, marred via way of means of violence withinside the House, Oberoi became elected mayor on February 22, defeating BJP`s Rekha Gupta via way of means of 34 votes. AAP candidate Aaley Mohammad Iqbal received the deputy mayor`s submit via way of means of raking in 147 votes in opposition to BJP`s Kamal Bagdi`s haul of 116 votes.

A senior MCD respectable stated Oberoi will now determine the following date to preserve the elections, and as soon as the mayor`s workplace offers its approval to the date, the report may be despatched to the lieutenant governor`s secretariat workplace for very last ratification. LG VK Saxena can even deliver his very last popularity of the appointment of the presiding officer to preserve the elections.

“The sitting mayor will keep to preserve the submit until a successor is elected, however thinking about the minimal time that desires to be furnished to finish those steps, the elections are possibly to be held after April 20,” the respectable, who’s related to the procedure, stated on circumstance of anonymity.

Unlike the primary MCD term, the location of mayor is now open for fashionable class councillors withinside the 2d cycle. However, events can repeat the identical candidate as withinside the first term.

Other vital posts also are putting withinside the balance. The elections to the status committee — an 18-member frame that controls the handbag strings of MCD — have now no longer been finished yet.

A 2d MCD respectable stated that not like the primary inaugural assembly of the MCD, the dates for the mayoral election withinside the 2d yr are finalised via way of means of the outgoing mayor. “The procedure has been initiated via way of means of the municipal secretariat and Oberoi is now possibly to indicate the viable dates to preserve elections soon. The report will then be moved to the LG secretariat, wherein the LG will hire a presiding officer to preserve the inaugural House of the second one yr. Usually, the outgoing mayor is the presiding officer for the election of the following cycle,” the respectable stated.

The AAP did now no longer reply to requests for comment. Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor stated, “If AAP does now no longer surrender its stubbornness, municipal offerings may also destroy down.”

Former North MCD leader regulation officer Anil Gupta stated the election procedure desires to be finished earlier than April 30. “Usually the outgoing mayor presides over the election assembly, however if the present day mayor comes to a decision to contest the elections for the following yr, she can be able to now no longer be taken into consideration the presiding officer,” he stated.