After Delhi victory, BJP eyes its next goal — winning MCD Mayoral polls

The mayoral elections are expected to beryllium held successful April, and the BJP is moving to consolidate its numbers and wrest power of the MCD from the AAP, which enactment insiders said, is not going to beryllium an uphill task.

In the 2022 MCD elections, AAP secured a bulk by winning 134 seats successful the 250-member House portion the BJP won 104 seats. The Congress managed to unafraid 9 seats, and 3 councillors were independents. However, the MCD’s tenure since past has been tumultuous, with some the BJP and AAP engaging successful assertive poaching of each other’s councillors.

As per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the MCD is required to elite a caller politician and lawman politician for which elections are expected to beryllium held successful April each year.

Apart from the councillor, 14 MLAs (nominated from parties successful proportionality to their practice successful the Delhi Assembly), 7 Lok Sabha MPs (all BJP) and 3 Rajya Sabha MPs (at the moment, each of them are from AAP) are going to beryllium a portion of the mayoral electorate.

In the erstwhile mayoral elections, the BJP had lone 1 nominated MLA. Given that their numbers successful the Delhi Assembly person present increased, the fig of elected MLAs who volition beryllium a portion of the electorate during the upcoming mayoral elections volition besides spot an increase.

The 2023 mayoral polls had seen a hold for 8 months owed to the non-appointment of a presiding serviceman by L-G V K Saxena. When the elections were yet held successful November past year, AAP’s Mahesh Kumar Khichi had won by a razor-thin borderline of conscionable 3 votes. The results had besides exposed friction wrong AAP arsenic 8 of its votes went to the BJP, which had signalled imaginable vulnerability wrong the AAP.

To beryllium sure, the anti-defection instrumentality does not use to the MCD councillors starring to changeless defections, which person importantly altered the creation of the House. Ahead of the Assembly polls, the BJP’s numbers had climbed to 120 portion AAP’s tally had dropped to 121.

The Assembly polls further impacted these figures arsenic AAP has present mislaid 3 of its councillors who person successfully transitioned into MLAs — Punardeep Singh Sawhney (Chandni Chowk), Prem Chauhan (Deoli), and Aaley Iqbal (Matia Mahal). This has reduced its full to 118.

On the different hand, the BJP saw 8 of its MCD councillors participate the Assembly — Ravinder Singh Negi (Patparganj), Shikha Roy (Greater Kailash), Chandan Chaudhary (Sangam Vihar), Gajender Daral (Mundka), Neelam Pehelwan (Najafgarh), Poonam Sharma (Wazirpur), Umang Bajaj (Rajender Nagar), and Rekha Gupta (Shalimar Bagh). Additionally, Rajkumar Bhatia, an L-G-appointed MCD alderman, won the Adarsh Nagar seat. These developments brought the BJP’s tally successful the MCD down to 112.

With conscionable six seats abbreviated of AAP, the BJP needs lone 4 much councillors to predominate the civic body.