4 min readNew DelhiSep 5, 2024 12:32 PM IST
First published on: Sep 4, 2024 at 10:28 PM IST
Securing control of seven out of 12 MCD zones, as opposed to the AAP’s five, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday gained an upper hand in the standing committee elections – the financial muscle of the civic body.
The tightly contested election saw a series of political manoeuverings, court interventions, and bureaucratic hurdles before they were finally held.
Uncertainty loomed over the elections until the night before after Mayor Shelly Oberoi refused to appoint presiding officers at 9pm. In a letter to the commissioner, she wrote that her conscience does not allow her to participate “in an undemocratic election process” as she believed that the time given to file nominations was insufficient. She directed MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar to restart the election process with at least one week for filing nominations.
Despite this, Kumar issued an order stating that L-G VK Saxena had directed the elections to proceed as per the schedule, appointing the 12 Deputy Commissioners as presiding officers. This was a break from the usual practice, where the Mayor typically appoints councillors with a strong understanding of the MCD to oversee the election process.
The Commissioner cited Section 487 of the DMC Act to justify the appointments.
Oberoi issued an order to the district commissioners on Wednesday morning, declaring the L-G’s directive “null and void.”
Despite this, the ward committee elections commenced as scheduled at the MCD’s Civic Center on Minto Road. The elections began with zones where outcomes were largely predictable. The AAP won unopposed in the City SP and Karol Bagh Zones, as the BJP lacked the necessary strength to contest these seats. In the Keshavpuram Zone, the BJP secured victory unopposed. The AAP easily claimed the Rohini Zone with 14 councillors against the BJP’s 7. In Najafgarh, the BJP, with 14 seats to AAP’s 8, secured the ward. The BJP also claimed the Shahdara South Zone. In the West Zone, the AAP won unopposed after BJP candidates withdrew their nominations, having only 5 elected councillors compared to AAP’s 20.
The most-contested battle occurred in the Shahdara North Zone, the only zone where the Congress had also fielded candidates. The AAP, with 12 councillors, an independent supporter, and an alliance with four Congress councillors, garnered 17 votes, challenging the BJP’s stronghold of 18 councillors. The AAP withdrew its nominations for Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson in favor of Congress candidates, while Congress withdrew its nomination for a Standing Committee member to support the AAP. However, the BJP narrowly secured the seat, benefiting from cross-voting, as it received 19 votes despite having only 18 councillors.
In the South Zone, where the AAP had a 10-seat advantage over the BJP, significant cross-voting led to a tie for the chairman’s post, with each party receiving 11 votes. A draw of lots was conducted, resulting in AAP’s candidate Kishan Jakhar being declared the winner, after which both parties had reached a tie after winning 5 zones each.
As the day progressed, the BJP gained control of the remaining zones.
In the Civil Lines Zone, the BJP won by a single vote, aided by 6 elected councillors and 4 LG-appointed aldermen, while the AAP had 9 councillors. The BJP’s tally rose to 15 votes in the Narela Zone, with support from 5 elected councillors, 1 AAP defector, and 5 aldermen, leading to another narrow victory over the AAP.
By the end of the day, the BJP had secured control of 7 zones, leaving the AAP with just 5. This will have implications during the elections of the chairman of Standing Committee, an 18-member body which has 12 members elected by the wards and 6 members elected by the House. These six members have already been elected during the Mayoral polls held last year.
They are AAP’s Aamil Malik, Mohini and Raminder Kaur, and BJP’s Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Gajendra Singh Daral and Pankaj Luthra. After Sehrawat bagged the Lok Sabha seat, her Standing Committee seat now remains vacant for which fresh elections are to be held. If the BJP does not bag the seat, it will lead to a tie between the two parties for which the results will be declared through a draw-of-lots. But if the BJP does bag the seat, it will get to exercise significant financial control on the MCD despite the AAP sitting at its helm. This way, the BJP can exercise the power to constrain the AAP financially.
The BJP bagged Narela, Civil Lines, Keshav Puram, Shahdara North, Najafgarh, Shahdara South, and Central Zones, while AAP won Karol Bagh, West, South, City SP and Rohini zones. 
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