After 6-month delay, fresh attempt to hold Delhi Mayor polls before Diwali

Under the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, mayoral polls are supposed to be held in April every year, during the first assembly session of the MCD House. This year, it was scheduled for April 26.

However, the elections saw two major roadblocks — the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and the nomination of a presiding officer by the Lieutenant Governor.

In the first case, the Election Commission of India (ECI) needed to grant permission to hold the mayoral elections as the MCC was in force in view of the Lok Sabha elections. The ECI later agreed, stating that it had “no issues with the MCC angle”.

However, L-G V K Saxena had refused to appoint a presiding officer, citing that the procedure requires consultation with the Chief Minister before making a decision. The file could not have been signed by the CM, as, at the time, the then-Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was behind bars.

Candidates from both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which currently holds power in the MCD, and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had already filed their nominations on April 18. AAP had nominated Dev Nagar councillor Mahesh Kumar Khichi for the post of mayor and Aman Vihar councillor Ravinder Bhardwaj for deputy mayor. The BJP had nominated its Shakurpur councillor Kishan Lal for mayor and Sadatpur councillor Neeta Bisht for deputy mayor. This year, both mayor and deputy mayor seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates.

The long delay in holding the elections will result in a shorter term for the eventual winners, as the mayor and deputy mayor typically serve for a year and fresh elections will have to be held again in April 2025.