Delhi Assembly speaker Vijender Gupta nominating 14 MLAs — 11 from the BJP and 3 from the AAP — to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Saturday has come as an advantage for the BJP, which is gearing up for the Mayoral elections next month.
Gupta while nominating these MLAs said their expertise will help enhance the services of the MCD and they would play a crucial role in the corporation’s decision-making, including in budget formulation, civic administration, and urban governance.
But, for the BJP, the move will pave the way for a triple-engine government in the state. During the last Mayoral elections, the BJP lost the civic body by three votes. Then, the BJP had only one nominated MLA in the civic body, which proved instrumental in the elections.
The party has already surpassed the AAP in the civic body last month when three AAP councillors switched to the BJP, putting the strength of the saffron brigade at 116. In the 250-member body, the AAP had just 114 seats while Congress had eight.
Though the MCD now has 12 vacant seats after councillors contested the Assembly elections (of the 22 councillors who contested, only 11 won the elections while one councillor vacated the seat for the Lok Sabha elections), the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act does not require byelections to be held before Mayoral elections. This means that BJP's chances of securing the mayoral post will increase.
The electoral college for MCD Mayoral elections consists of 250 councillors, 10 MPs and 14 MLAs. As of now, BJP has 116 councillors, 11 MLAs and seven MPs. This means that BJP will get 15-16 vote advantage in the elections.
The only way out of defeat for AAP is to join hands with the Congress, which means all Congress councillors will have to vote for AAP. Cross-voting is also a possibility since the anti-defection law does not apply to MCD elections. However, the chances for both at present are low.
