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This is an archive article published on February 22, 2023

AAP has won the mayor polls. Can it now control MCD?

How Congress walkout, L-G’s picks for 10 aldermen will affect the formation of the Standing Committee — the corporation’s most powerful body.

delhi mcd elections, shelly oberoiAAP's Shelly Oberoi wins Delhi MCD Mayoral polls (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)
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AAP has won the mayor polls. Can it now control MCD?
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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) pick Shelly Oberoi was elected as Delhi Mayor Wednesday, more than two months after the party won the MCD polls in December. While her election is a significant win for the ruling AAP, the party is now faced with the far daunting task of getting an upper hand in the Standing Committee.

While the mayor is the nominal head of the civic body, it is the Standing Committee which has executive powers. A mayor’s powers are limited to calling special meetings of the House, declaring quorum for the House to convene sittings, and disqualifying members if they do not furnish details of their assets.

Powers to grant financial approval to projects, discussions related to and the finalisation of policies to be implemented, appoint sub-committees (on issues such as education, environment, parking etc) and form regulations are under the ambit of the Standing Committee, which has 18 members.

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While six members of this committee will be elected on Wednesday by councillors, the remaining 12 will be elected by Ward Committees later.

The Committee has a chairperson and a deputy chairperson, who is elected from among its members. Having a clear majority in the Committee is crucial for any political party to have control of the policy and financial decisions of the Corporation.

Congress councillors did not vote in the mayoral elections on Wednesday. They had earlier said they will boycott the vote and would instead protest against the “anti-people” policies of the AAP and BJP.

This walkout, if adhered to in the Standing Committee polls, however, changes the AAP’s fortunes.

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The formula followed for the direct election of six members of the Standing Committee in the House is a preferential system in which the councillor getting the first 36 votes wins.

If the Congress councillors vote, the AAP would easily get three seats since it has 134 votes, but the BJP would have trouble as it would need 108 councillors to get the same number of seats. The BJP has 104 elected councillors and the support of one Independent. The aldermen don’t play a role in these elections.

The AAP will win 4 and BJP 2 in this scenario.

The 12 Ward Committees, which send one member each to the Standing Committee, is where the aldermen have a crucial role to play.

As per the results of the December polls, where the AAP got 134 out of 250 wards, it has a majority in eight zones, with the Central zone seeing a tough contest but eventually going to the ruling party. The remaining four zones went to the BJP.

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The 10 aldermen, however, will alter this equation. All 10 belong to BJP.

In Delhi, the MCD is divided into 12 zones. Each zone has a Ward Committee, which includes all councillors from the area, as well as any aldermen.

Since it is not mandatory that only one or two aldermen are selected from a particular zone or ward, the L-G has nominated four aldermen from the Civil Lines Zone, four from the Narela zone and two from the Central zone. This means the AAP will no longer hold a majority in the first two, and the Central zone will be a tight contest.

The AAP, which was expected to get eight out of the 12 Standing Committee members before aldermen were nominated, may get six at the most and five if it loses the Central Zone.

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If Congress walks out of the House on Wednesday and the AAP wins three out of the six standing committee seats.

This means that in the final Committee, the AAP will have eight members as opposed to the BJP’s 10, which is the worst-case scenario for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s party. If the BJP loses the Central Zone, both parties will tie at nine members each.

BJP leaders had said on Tuesday they were confident of winning three seats out of six in the Standing Committee on Wednesday and also of getting seven out of 12 Ward Committee members in the Standing Committee later.

Jatin Anand is an Assistant Editor with the national political bureau of The Indian Express. Over the last 16 years, he has covered governance, politics, bureaucracy, crime, traffic, intelligence, the Election Commission of India and Urban Development among other beats. He is an English (Literature) graduate from Zakir Husain Delhi College, DU & specialised in Print at the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai. He tweets @jatinpaul ... Read More

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