The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which won majority in MCD by making many big promises including removal of all three garbage mountains of Delhi in 5 years, is still waiting to get the corporation’s power. Who will be in charge of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Standing Committee? Even this is not clear yet. AAP, which has won 134 wards, is facing a challenge from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has 105 councillors. AAP is confident of winning the post of mayor and deputy mayor ahead of BJP in arithmetic, but the real tension is that of the power center on which BJP has made complete arrangements to screw up.
In fact, apart from the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor in MCD, the standing committee members are also to be elected, which is called the real power center. The mayor is the head of the corporation, but the executive powers rest with the standing committee. The mayor has limited powers and can do things like call meetings of the house, play a role in smooth running of the house, and disqualify members for not reporting assets. The standing committee, which consists of 18 members, has the power to sanction projects, formulate policies and implement them, form subcommittees on important issues such as education, environment and parking, and make rules.
How can BJP capture the power center?
Councilors will elect 6 members of the Standing Committee, while the remaining 12 will be elected through ward committees. The six members of the Standing Committee will be elected through a preference-based voting system. 36 votes will be required for the victory of a member. But as Congress has announced, if 9 of its councilors are absent from voting, then only 35 votes will be needed for the victory of one member and in such a situation 3-3 candidates of AAP and BJP can win. After this, the role of Alderman will also be important in the election to be held through Ward Committee, who has been nominated by LG VK Saxena. These 12 members will be elected from 12 zones of MCD. AAP has majority in 8 zones, while BJP can easily win in 4 zones. But aldermen can change this equation. Out of 10, 4 aldermen are from Civil Lines Zone, 4 from Narela Zone and two from Central Zone. This means that the fork in Civil Lines and Narela Zone may swing from AAP to BJP. There will be tough competition in the Central Zone as well. The kind of equations being created have increased the concern of ‘AAP’. If AAP does not get a clear majority in the Standing Committee, the decisions of the MCD will not be easy for it.
What should be Kejriwal’s double concern?
The first concern before the AAP convenor is how to win the majority of seats in the MCD, including the mayor’s. If the party does not get majority in the Standing Committee, then it will be difficult to work according to its own accord despite coming to power. It is a different matter that the MCD elections will come after 5 years and the party still has enough time to fulfill the promises, but the party which has been in power in Delhi for 8 years knows that the Lok Sabha elections are going to be held only after a year. In elections also, parties like BJP and Congress will start demanding account of promises from them. In Delhi, on all issues ranging from cleanliness, the party will have to do a better job faster. Anyway, AAP’s account has not yet been opened in the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, where the party was founded.
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