Fourth time’s the charm as Delhi mayor elected – for 2 months

The truncated tenure of the mayor and deputy mayor elected on Wednesday is the outcome of the unique situations arising out of the delayed municipal elections due to unification of three erstwhile corporations and delimitation of wards.

The much-delayed MCD mayor elections were concluded on Wednesday -- 78 days after Delhi elected 250 councillors to the unified civic body, and three botched attempts to conduct the polls. However, the city will witness another round of polls to elect a mayor and deputy mayor after a little over a month.

Mayor Shelly Oberoi celebrates with party members after getting elected. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

The truncated tenure of the mayor and deputy mayor elected on Wednesday is the outcome of the unique situations arising out of the delayed municipal elections due to unification of three erstwhile corporations and delimitation of wards. According to the Delhi Municipal Act, which governs the working of the civic body, a new mayor is elected by the House in April every year.

This means that Shelley Oberoi, who was elected mayor on Wednesday, will continue in her post till March 31 only.

A senior municipal secretariat official explained that according to the DMC Act “year” means a year commencing on the 1st day of April. He added that Section 35 of the Act mandates that “corporation at its first meeting in each year must elect one of its members to be the chairperson to be known as the mayor and another member to be the deputy mayor of the Corporation.”

The Act also mandates that the first mayor has to be a woman.

The Wednesday elections also mark an important transition as the office of the Special Officer ceased to exist with the election of the mayor, and the transfer of power in the House of elected councillors from the Centre-appointed official to the public representatives.

Immediately after the elections were completed, the municipal officials removed the designation and name plates and changed it with that of the mayor. Special Officer Ashwini Kumar, who was appointed on May 22, 2022, oversaw the unification and merger of the policies, tax regimes and regulations of the three municipal corporations as well as passed the tax schedule for 2023-24.

The Centre announced its plans to unify the three civic bodies in Delhi in March this year, the same day when the state elections commission had called a press conference to declare the schedule for MCD elections. The polls were due to be held in April.

The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022 was passed by the two House of Parliament on April 5, and it received the Presidential assent on April 20. According to the amendment, the number of total municipal wards were reduced from 272 to 250. A delimitation commission was constituted to redraw the boundaries of the MCD wards and the Centre adopted the recommendations in October.

In the interim, the Centre appointed a Special Officer and a commissioner to head the elected wing and the bureaucrats respectively.

The state election commission announced the dates for MCD polls in November and the polls were held on December 4 and the results were announced on December 7. Winning 134 wards of the total 250, AAP scored a clear majority.

The Delhi LG fixed January 6, as the date for the House to convene for the first time after the polls and elect a mayor. However, frequent disruption among members of the AAP and the BJP led to the adjournment of the House. The LG then fixed January 24 for the mayor polls but the process could not be completed yet again.The House met again on February 6, but due to conflict over voting rights for the nominated members and a single ballot polls for mayor, deputy mayor and members of the standing committee led to disruption of the proceedings.

The AAP moved the Supreme Court which ordered on February 17 that the elections must be held soon, and ruled that the nominated members will not vote in the House. Following this, the LG fixed February 22 to hold mayor polls.

The immediate challenge before the House and will be to clear the remaining budget proposals for the next financial year. Though Kumar had approved the schedule of taxes on February 15, the corporation can still revise the expenditure and remaining budget provisions till March 31, 2023. The municipal commissioner has presented the budget proposals before the special officer on December 8, 2022.