Results of the Delhi municipal elections were declared on April 26 but the houses of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) are yet to be constituted. This has led to unnecessary delay in the elections of the Mayors of the three corporations. A senior civic official said a proposal has been sent to lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal about tentative dates for the mayoral polls.
SDMC, NMC and EDMC will elect mayors in the first meeting of the new House. But, the newly-elected councillors are yet to be administered the oath of office.
“The mayoral polls are supposed to be completed by April. But, this time, the MCD polls took place on April 23. So, the situation is a bit different. By rule, a mayor is supposed to be elected in the first meeting of the new House,” the official said.
“But, for convening the first meeting after a municipal poll, the lt-Governor has to give his approval, who then would appoint a presiding officer and a senior officer. While the senior officer administers the oath to councillors, the presiding officer oversees the mayoral election,” he said. The lt Governor, at his discretion, appoint one officer for both the posts, the official added.
“A proposal has been sent to the lt Governor with tentative dates for the mayoral polls for the three municipal corporations. For the NMC, the proposed date is May 18, for the SDMC it is May 19 and for the EDMC it is May 22. Now we are awaiting the lt Governor’s response,” the official said.
In the EDMC, the expiry of the mayoral term has already created issues, with outgoing East Delhi Mayor Satya Sharma alleging that she is no more allowed to access her office and official vehicle.
The mayors of North Delhi and South Delhi civic bodies, however, “continue to enjoy” the amenities entitled to them, a source said.
All three outgoing mayors belong to the BJP, the party which has ruled the MCD for the last 10 years.
The saffron party, which had fielded fresh faces in the recently concluded civic polls, retained control of the three corporations by winning 181 of the 270 wards where elections were held. Elections to the remaining two wards have been postponed to May 14 and May 21 respectively.
In the NDMC, Sanjiv Nayyar was unanimously elected the mayor on April 28 last year, while on April 27 last year Shyam Sharma and Satya Sharma were elected as mayor of the SDMC and the EDMC respectively.
It may be recalled that the erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi was trifurcated in 2012 into the NMC, the SDMC and the EDMC. The first MCD polls after the trifurcation was held the same year.
The post of mayor sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second for open category, third for reserved category, and the remaining two also being in the open category.