Only 31 of the 70 Assembly seats will reportedly be having four municipal wards under their respective geographical boundaries as the remaining 148 municipal wards are likely to have new peripheries in the national Capital.
A report prepared on the delimitation of the 272 municipal wards by the State Election Commission, which is awaiting lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung's nod, is said to have incorporated 10 per cent of the 650-odd objections and suggestions from general public, political parties and other stakeholders. The State Election Commission had recently sent its final delimitation report to Chief Secretary KK Sharma, who in turn had forwarded it to Raj Niwas.
Once new wards are notified, all the political parties will chalk out their strategies for the municipal elections scheduled for April next year. The delimitation drive will see political parties selecting their candidates on the basis of population of voters belonging to different castes and communities.
For instance, if a chunk of voters of a Bengali dominated ward become part of another ward dominated by Punjabi community, the political parties will have to be extra careful to chose their candidates from the two communities. While AAP is likely going to be a major player in the municipal elections, both the BJP and the Congress will have to redraw their strategies to ensure their candidates are from those communities and castes which dominate the particular wards.
In September, the State Election Commission had sought suggestions and objections from political parties, aspiring candidates and general public on its draft delimitation report of municipal wards. The report had proposed changes in the boundaries of about 150 wards. The report had proposed that each ward be carved out on the basis of the population size of 60,142 people in North Delhi Municipal Corporation, 59,750 people in South Delhi Municipal Corporation and 61,716 people in the East Delhi Municipal Corporation. In 2007, each of the existing 272 municipal wards had been carved out on the basis of the population size of 40,000 people.
In the NDMC area, each of the 10 Assembly constituencies will be having four wards, nine seats will have three wards, two will have six wards and five others will have as many as five wards. That means both Burari and Bawana Assembly seats will be having six wards under their respective jurisdiction.
As far as the SDMC area is concerned, only seven Assembly seats will be having four wards under their jurisdiction. While Matiala and Vikaspuri Assembly seats will be having seven and six wards respectively under their jurisdiction, there will be 11 other seats having three wards in their jurisdiction.
In the EDMC area, as many as 14 Assembly seats will be having four wards under their jurisdiction. While Karawal Nagar Assemly seat will be having five wards, Gandhi Nagar seat will have only three wards under its geographical boundary.
The State Election Commission had carried out the delimitation exercise on the directions of the l-G, who was entrusted by the Centre to demarcate new wards as per the provisions of Sections 3 and 5 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957. The last delimitation of MCD wards carried out in 2007 was based on the 2001 Census. later, 136 wards were increased to 272 after the trifurcation of the municipal corporation in 2012.