The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has formed a three-member committee to carry out a delimitation exercise of municipal wards in the Capital, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) announced here on Saturday.
The delimitation exercise will pave the way for the city’s first civic polls after the MCD’s reunification.
“Taking a step forward in the direction of holding municipal elections, the Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted a delimitation commission to assist Central government in delimitation of wards and carrying out other functions related to it,” the MCD stated.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who recently threatened to drag the BJP-led Centre to court for deferring the civic polls, welcomed the development.
On May 22, The Hindu reported that a new panel would be formed for a fresh delimitation of civic wards in the city.
Ward uncertainty
While welcoming the constitution of the committee, Mr. Kejriwal also raised a question on how the committee would function without clarity on the number of civic wards the city would now have.
“We are happy that the Central government has constituted a committee for the delimitation of MCD wards. But it did not specify how many wards there will be in Delhi. How will this committee function?” the Chief Minister tweeted.
According to the MCD, the delimitation panel will have three members and will be chaired by Vijay Dev, the State Election Commissioner. The other two members of the panel will be Pankaj Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and Randhir Sahay, Additional Commissioner, MCD. The panel is expected to submit its report within four months.
Reacting to the development, AAP MLA Atishi called the constitution of the panel by the Centre, without a decision on the number of wards in the city, a tactic to delay the civic polls.
“The committee can’t start its job without knowing how many wards there should be,” Ms. Atishi said.
“It is another attempt by the BJP to postpone and delay the MCD election. Because they know that the people of Delhi have decided that they will vote out the BJP and vote the Kejriwal government to power in the MCD too. That is why the BJP is postponing the election as much as they can,” she added.
Addressing the BJP, Ms. Atishi said, “After the 2013 [Assembly] election, you declared President’s rule in Delhi and did not conduct the polls. But with the passage of time, the popularity of AAP and Kejriwal increased. No matter how much you delay the civic polls, the people will give more votes to AAP and Kejriwal. Your situation will be the same as it is in the Delhi Assembly and you will be reduced to single digits.”
‘Not afraid’
On his part, Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said that his party was the largest political party in the world, which had succeeded in making political inroads in areas where it had no previous presence. He said the BJP never ran away from elections.
“We are a party that began with just two MPs and today have 303 Lok Sabha members. The BJP never steps back from elections and believes in following the laid down democratic procedures. People making such allegations are exposing their own fear of defeat,” Mr. Gupta added.
Mr. Gupta welcomed the move and said that the BJP was ready and willing to contest the civic polls.
The reunified MCD came into existence on May 22, after the three erstwhile municipalities — North, East and South — were merged into one entity.
Senior IAS officers Ashwani Kumar and Gyanesh Bharti assumed charge of the body as its special officer and commissioner respectively.
Established in 1958, the MCD, which had 272 wards, was trifurcated in 2012 during the then Sheila Dikshit Congress government’s tenure. North and South corporations got 104 wards each and the remaining 64 wards were brought under the ambit of the East civic corporation.
On April 5, the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was passed by Parliament to reunify the three corporations.
