After MCD polls, focus now on election of mayor, formation of standing committee

The winning party does not get to automatically appoint the key functionaries of the civic body and every key position and even the committees are filled by a series of subsequent internal elections where, importantly, the anti-defection laws do not apply

Elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi are over, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has won 134 of the corporation’s 250 wards but the focus will now shift to the constitution of the new unified house of councillors and the election for a single Mayor of Delhi. The winning party does not get to automatically appoint the key functionaries of the civic body and every key position and even the committees are filled by a series of subsequent internal elections where, importantly, the anti-defection laws do not apply.

Delhi chief minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal addresses party workers after AAP crossed the majority mark in the MCD polls, at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI)

MCD comprises two wings-- a deliberative wing of elected councillors ceremonially headed by the mayor and an executive wing of civic bureaucracy headed by a municipal commissioner appointed by the Union government that implements policies and provisions of the DMC act. The real decision-making power is with the house of councillors, the standing committee , and the commissioner’s office -- with the overlaps likely to lead to more stand-offs between AAP and the Union government.

The mayor’s position (which comes with a tenure of a year) is reserved for a woman councillor in the 1st year and Scheduled Caste councillor in 3rd year and over the five-year term, the municipal corporation gets five mayors. Besides chairing the meetings of the house of councillors, like a speaker in the state assembly, the mayor also has power to sign off on the provision of discretionary funds and heads several important committees such as the naming/renaming committee and can provide anticipatory approval to proposals moved by the executive wing.

Deep Chand Mathur, former director (P&I) who was with MCD from 1980 to 2011, said that with the elections being completed, the municipal secretary office (MCD) will issue a notification asking for nominations for election to the post of mayor. “Any member can file their candidature for this mayoral post. The first meeting is ceremonially presided over by a senior official or former councilor appointed by the administrator. The elections are held immediately after the oath-taking ceremony and a secret ballot is used in a booth set up inside the house chamber.” Besides the 250 elected members, the house of councillors will also comprise all members of parliaments from Delhi (seven Lok Sabha and three, Rajya Sabha), 13 MLAs nominated by the speaker of the Delhi assembly, and 10 aldermen nominated by the LG.

With all 13 MLAs nominated by the speaker certain to belong to AAP, and with three AAP Rajya Sabha MPs, the party will be able to offset the BJP’s gains from the seven Lok Sabha MPs. That is, provided it gets its flock to vote to script. That means that Delhi will have an AAP mayor. The nominated aldermen don’t get a vote in the election.

Cross-voting by a few candidates against the party has been occurring on regular basis but it has rarely affected the final outcome, Mathur added. “Three or four cross votes have been common but the victory margin has rarely been so narrow that it can impact the result. Usually, the MPs and MLAs do not even turn up for these polls.” That’s unlikely to be the case this time.

The standing committee is a major power centre and the second most powerful deliberative body in the corporation after the house of councillors and wields considerable financial and policy-making powers. All proposals and policy documents are deliberated upon at the level of standing committee before being forwarded to the house for approval. It has a chairman who presides over its meetings. MCD has seen various powerful standing committee chairpersons such as Vijender Gupta from BJP and Ram Babu Sharma from Congress. The Standing Committee has six members elected by the house of councillors from among themselves at the first meeting of the Corporation. All six are likely to be from AAP in this case.

It also has six members picked by the 12 ward committees from among themselves. The 250 wards in Delhi are broken up into 12 zones, with each having its own wards committees picked by the councillors of the constituent wards.

It is not immediately clear who will control the 12 administrative wards-- City, Karol Bagh, Sadar Paharganj, Civil Line, Narela, Rohini, Central Delhi, South Delhi, West Delhi, Najafgarh Shahdra North and Shahdra South -- of MCD. A zonal ward committee that comprises of the councillors from that zone and one nominated member (chosen by LG) administer the MCD zones. An MCD spokesperson said that the following the delimitation of the municipal wards on October 17, the process of determining the composition of zones is still underway. “The tentative proposal for the composition of zonal boundaries is ready and it will be finalised in coming week,” the spokesperson said.

The 10 nominated members called Aldermen, a remnant of similar posts that existed in counties and boroughs in England, can indirectly influence these power centres. Former Chief Law Officer of North MCD Anil Gupta said that the aldermen who are the co-opted member of the corporation but do not have voting powers in the proceedings of the house.

The aldermen will be appointed by the LG.

“These aldermen can be members of other important bodies such as standing committees and wards committees. They can have voting powers in these smaller bodies but they can’t vote in the house or mayoral election. All the MPs and one-fifth of MLAs nominated from the Delhi assembly by the speaker have voting powers. The nominated MLAs exclude the areas that fall under NDMC or Delhi Cantt,” Gupta explained.

He said there is no anti-defection law operational for MCD. “Two years ago, we had moved a proposal to the central government to incorporate the provisions of anti-defection laws on the basis of such provisions in Manipur local bodies but nothing has moved forward in this regard,” he added.

Elections on similar patterns are also held for over 30 statutory committees, special and ad-hoc committees such as the education committee for overseeing education, works committee for engineering, department of environment management services (Dems) committee for sanitation . While generally these elections are only a formality and the winning party comfortably manages to appoint their members, close election results in MCD may open up the contest for them. These committee members are conventionally picked by the party that controls the civic body and they are usually elected unopposed.