Delhi election body seeks legal view on civic bodies’ poll schedule

Last Wednesday, SEC, which was expected to declare the schedule for elections to the three civic bodies, put off the announcement at the last minute, citing a communication from the central government about plans to merge the three municipal corporations.

Delhi state election commission (SEC) has sought a legal opinion on whether it can go ahead to announce the schedule of municipal corporation polls in Delhi despite a Centre’s communication that it may bring a legislation in the current session of parliament to unify the three civic bodies in Delhi, officials aware of the matter said on Tuesday.

The deferment of the poll schedule announcement triggered a political row with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claiming that it was “running away” from elections. (HT Archive)

“The commission is likely to receive the legal advice by the end of this week or early next week. The commission will go through the opinion of the legal experts, and decide the next step,” an SEC official said asking not to be named. The official did not disclose the names of the legal experts from whom the poll panel has sought legal opinion.

A second SEC official who also spoke on condition on of anonymity said the legal opinion will facilitate the process of the decision the panel has to take regarding the conduct of the MCD elections.

MCD elections are due to be held in April with the terms of three civic bodies coming to and end in May.

Last Wednesday, SEC, which was expected to declare the schedule for elections to the three civic bodies, put off the announcement at the last minute, citing a communication from the central government about plans to merge the three municipal corporations.

The deferment of the poll schedule announcement triggered a political row with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claiming that it was “running away” from elections.

Last Friday, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged that SEC buckled under pressure from the Union government and postponed the announcement of the civic body polls schedule. He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to “cancel” the elections, saying the country’s values should not be “infringed upon at any cost”.

The BJP has been ruling all three civic bodies for three consecutive terms and is facing a massive anti-incumbency with all three corporations facing an acute financial crunch. Thousands of MCD staff have gone on repeated strikes in the past two years over non-payment of salaries even as the corporations have been unable to execute new development projects. The AAP, which is the main opposition party in all three civic bodies, has been persistently raising issues of rampant corruption and financial mismanagement by the BJP councillors.

The elections are crucial for all three contenders -- the BJP, the AAP and the Congress. Having failed to make any dent in the unprecedented majority of the AAP in the past two elections to Delhi assembly, the MCDs remain the last bastion for the BJP in Delhi. The Congress, which has been relegated to the political sidelines in the Capital, is seeking to revive their cadre in the capital by making some electoral gains.

The term of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation is expiring on May 18, 2022, the term of the North Delhi corporation will expire on May 19, and the East Delhi civic body’s term will get over on May 22. The state election commission has to conduct elections before the expiry of the terms. “The polls have to be conducted before May 18, and since at least one month is needed from the date of the announcement of the schedule to the date on which the polls will be held, the schedule of the polls should be announced before April 18,” said the official.

Earlier, SEC clarified that the MCD polls have neither been cancelled nor deferred, and added that it only pushed back the announcement in view of the communication sent by the Centre.

The speculation about the unification of the three corporations has been going on for some time. The BJP in favour of unification as it believes this will solve the financial mess that two of the three corporations have been facing since trifurcation in 2012.

Experts, however, have pointed out that unification may not prove the silver bullet for all ills of the civic bodies. They said that it would need a new economic model and rationalisation of revenues and expenditure to make the three bodies financially viable without which even the unification could not be possible.

Prof Tanvir Aeijaz, an associate professor of Political Science at Ramjas College, said constitutionally the SEC was not obliged to follow communications from the central government.

“The elections to the municipalities are constitutionally vested in SEC, wherein it, as an autonomous constitutional body, has the powers to superintend, direct and control the conduct of local body elections. Local government, particularly powers of municipal corporation, is a state subject. However, in the case of Delhi, due to its unique constitutional status as a UT with an elected assembly, the power to reorganise civic bodies rests with the centre. But in no circumstance, the centre can transgress the powers of SEC, as it would be a violation of the (Constitution’s) federal principles,” he said.