The AAP, which first formed the Government seven years ago and got re-elected in 2020, is faced with a decision it hasn't had to deal with in its tenure so far — the election of a Mayor for a unified Delhi Municipal Corporation, and by extension, a Mayor for all of Delhi. Authorities in the MCD are likely to soon approach Lieutenant-Governor VK Saxena to seek a date on which the civic House can be convened so that Councillors can take oath and a Mayor be elected.
This will be the first municipal House consisting of 250 Councillors.
The House will be convened at the Civic Centre, the headquarters of the MCD Minto Road in the heart of the city. Votes were counted on Wednesday and the AAP has emerged as a clear winner, bagging 134 wards and ending the 15-year rule of the BJP in the civic body.
A senior MCD official said, "The elections are over and now MCD will approach the LG, seeking a date on which the municipal House can be convened so that the councillors can take oath, and then a Mayor be elected."
According to the DMC Act 1957, "The Corporation shall at its first meeting in each year 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."
Section 3 of the Act talks about the "establishment of the Corporation", and in the 2022 amendment brought in by the government, this section has remained unchanged, the official said.