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Road cleared for Delhi Municipal Corporation elections, civic wards rebuilt: 10 points

October 19, 2022
Sezarr

New Delhi:
Wards of Delhi’s municipal corporation have been redone as a first step in holding the delayed civic polls, which is being seen as a test of popularity of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party. This move opposed by AAP is likely to increase enmity between the Center and the state.

Here are the top 10 points of this big story:

  1. There is talk that the Delhi civic polls may coincide with the assembly elections in Gujarat – an attempt to keep AAP aligned in Delhi. The party has been running a vigorous campaign in Gujarat, highlighting its model of governance in Punjab and Delhi, where the BJP came second in the assembly elections.

  2. The civic polls initially to be held in March were pushed back, with the Center saying it wanted to merge the three municipal bodies in Delhi. AAP argued that given its crushing defeat in Punjab, the BJP was playing prematurely as it was nervous about the contest.

  3. AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said, “People are questioning this move. It has been seven-eight years since BJP came to the Centre, why didn’t they do it (integration) earlier.” “The BJP knows that there is AAP wave in Delhi and they will be defeated,” he said.

  4. Before the merger, which took place in May, three municipal corporations – South Delhi Municipal Corporation, North Delhi Municipal Corporation and East Delhi Municipal Corporation – were under the BJP’s control.

  5. The AAP had last month opposed the draft plan to redraw the wards when presented by the Delimitation Commission, calling it “politically motivated”. The AAP went up to the Supreme Court, arguing that it would lead to disparity in population and size of civil administrative units.

  6. The top court has sought a response from the state election commission and the central government.

  7. The Delimitation Committee on Monday submitted its final report on the rescheduling of the wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to the Ministry of Home Affairs after settling all the objections and suggestions. Sources said the committee had received over 1,700 suggestions and objections on the draft report on delimitation of wards in Delhi.

  8. The delimitation exercise will be completed after the gazette notification of the Union Home Ministry. Under this, the integrated Delhi Municipal Corporation will have less than 250 wards of 272, out of which 42 will be reserved for Scheduled Castes.

  9. The AAP had said last month, “22 assembly constituencies were to see a reduction of one ward each under delimitation, but the ward structure of all 70 constituencies was reorganized in the draft order.”

  10. “This exercise has been called for lack of logic, logic and reasoning by experts across the board. It has been argued that the reorganization of wards under the MCD delimitation may pose a threat to the development of the national capital and the interests of the functioning -class ward in the dark,” the party had added in a statement.