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Journalism of Courage
Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta Saturday nominated 14 MLAs to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) — 11 from the BJP and 3 from the AAP — for the financial year 2025-26. This comes ahead of the mayoral elections scheduled for April.
Gupta said these MLAs would play a crucial role in the corporation’s decision-making — budget formulation, civic administration, and urban governance. “These MLAs will act as a bridge between the Delhi Legislative Assembly and the MCD, ensuring seamless coordination, policy implementation, and effective execution of civic projects. Their expertise will contribute to enhancing municipal services, strengthening urban development, and addressing pressing issues such as waste management, pollution control, and public sanitation,” read a statement from Gupta’s office.
With the mayoral elections approaching, the composition of the electoral body is now clearer. Apart from the 250 elected councillors, the electorate will include the 14 nominated MLAs, seven Lok Sabha MPs — all from the BJP — and three Rajya Sabha MPs, who are currently from the AAP, including the party’s rebel MP Swati Maliwal.
The increased presence of BJP MLAs in the mayoral electorate marks a significant shift from previous elections, where the party had only one nominated MLA. This change is a result of the BJP’s improved tally in the Delhi Assembly following the recent state elections, which saw AAP’s seats shrink from 62 in 2020 to just 22 now. The BJP’s tally meanwhile, went from 8 in 2020 to 48 now.
In the last mayoral election, AAP had secured victory by a narrow margin of just three votes. With 11 of its MLAs now part of the mayoral electorate, the BJP’s chances of electing its candidate as the next Mayor of Delhi have strengthened.
The nominated MLAs
From AAP, the three MLAs are Pravesh Ratn (Patel Nagar), Ram Singh Netaji (Badarpur), and Surendra Kumar (Gokalpur).
The 11 BJP MLAs are — Anil Kumar (RK Puram), Chandan Kumar Choudhary (Sangam Vihar), Jitender Mahajan (Rohtas Nagar), Karnail Singh (Shakur Basti), Manoj Kumar Shokeen (Nangloi Jat), Neelam Pahalwan (Najafgarh), Pradyumn Singh Rajput (Dwarka), Raj Kumar Bhatia (Adarsh Nagar), Ravi Kant (Trilokpuri), Sanjay Goyal (Shahdara), and Tarvinder Singh Marwah (Jangpura).
