Delhi speaker nominates 14 MLAs to MCD in run up to civic polls

Speaker Vijender Gupta said that the nominated MLAs would assist the MCD in budget formulation, civic administration and urban governance

Delhi speaker Vijender Gupta on Friday nominated 11 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and three Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), who will form a part of the electoral college that elects the mayor and deputy mayor of Delhi.

The MCD Civic Centre. (HT Archive)

During the previous regime, the AAP nominated 13 of its MLAs and one from the BJP to the MCD.

In a statement, Gupta said that the nominated MLAs would assist the MCD in budget formulation, civic administration and urban governance. “The newly elected MLAs will have a tenure of one year as nominated members of the municipal corporation, which is the procedure. All the MLAs will get a chance to be nominated to MCD by rotation,” Gupta said.

The BJP MLAs nominated to MCD are Anil Sharma, Chandan Choudhary, Jitender Mahajan, Karnail Singh, Manoj Kumar Shokeen, Neelam Pahalwan, Parduymn Singh Rajput, Raj Kumar Bhatia, Ravi Kant, Sanjay Goyal and Tarvinder Marwah, according to the official notification. The three AAP MLAs are Pravesh Ratn, Surendra Kumar and Ram Singh Netaji.

The AAP won the last mayoral election held in November 2024 by three votes. The BJP became the largest party in the MCD on February 15, after three AAP councillors switched over, following the party’s sweeping win in the Delhi Assembly elections. To be sure, the anti-defection law does not apply to civic bodies.

The municipal secretary’s office on Friday released an order, stating that the office of the legislative assembly secretariat has endorsed the members of the MCD. “Speaker of the legislative assembly of National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT-Delhi) is pleased to nominate the following members of legislative assembly of Delhi to be represented in Municipal Corporation as per provision of section 3(3)(b) of the Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 for financial year 2024-25),” the order signed by deputy secretary Sadanand Sah said.

The electoral college for the election of mayor includes 250 elected councillors, seven members of Lok Sabha, three members of Rajya Sabha and a fifth of the members of the Delhi Assembly nominated by the speaker (14 MLAs). While 10 aldermen nominated by the lieutenant governor are also part of the house of councillors, they do not have voting rights.