In the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s coin will be deposited or the Aam Aadmi Party will be successful in sweeping, its decision will be clear with the coming results today. BJP is ruling here for the last 15 years. To retain its 15-year-old power in this election, the party has given its full strength, but in the initial trends, the Aam Aadmi Party seems to be getting an edge. In such a situation, let us know about those tricks, due to which BJP wanted to retain the kingship over Delhi.

Not holding elections on time

In the month of May this year, the term of all the three municipal corporations of the capital was over, usually elections are held a month before the end of the term. But this time the election date was announced after 6 months. State Election Commissioner Vijay Dev attributed the delay in announcing the date to the integration of municipal corporations and the process of delimitation of wards.

According to a BBC report, State Election Commissioner Vijay Dev said, “The Municipal Corporation was integrated after the amendment in the DMC Act. That is, a Unified Municipal Corporation was established. Earlier there were a total of three municipal corporations in the capital Delhi, which became one after integration. After this the delimitation process was necessary. This is a long process and it took time to complete and this was the reason that the announcement of the election date was delayed."

However, the Aam Aadmi Party approached the Supreme Court regarding the delay in the elections. The Aam Aadmi Party believed that this was only a ploy to postpone the MCD elections so that the party could campaign for the MCDs after the Himachal and Gujarat elections. 

3 corporations amalgamated 

The three parts of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi were divided in January 2012 by the then CM Sheila Dikshit. After this bifurcation, the Municipal Corporations of South Delhi (SDMC), North Delhi (NDMC) and East Delhi (EDMC) were formed.

The Bharatiya Janata Party had been raising the demand for the integration of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for a long time. In the month of March this year, the Union Cabinet approved the integration of Delhi MCD and then after passing the bill from both the Houses, the process of integration was completed. After this unification, the same system, which was there 10 years ago, came into force again in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Now the number of MCD wards has reduced from 272 to 250. Earlier there were 272 wards in Delhi MCD.

There has been a tussle between the MCD and the Delhi government many times over the distribution of funds, jurisdiction and work. The party believed behind the demand of uniting all the three corporations that if this happens, there will be only one mayor and his power will be equal to the CM of Delhi. 

BJP can benefit from the integration of the three corporations in such a way that the presence of three governments (Central Government, Delhi Government, Municipal Corporation) in Delhi and the lack of coordination among them becomes a hindrance in the development of the capital. Especially when all the three places are ruled by different political parties. In such a situation, the central government’s control over the integration of municipal corporations will be preferred. 

Politics behind unification of all three municipal corporations 

BJP has been opposing it since 2012 when the Municipal Corporation was divided into three parts during Sheila Dixit’s government. The biggest reason for this is that with the merger of all the three municipal corporations, the Mayor will also be one and his power will be equal to that of the Chief Minister. The BJP has been alleging that the present government of Delhi does not release funds to the municipal corporations, due to which huge losses are being incurred. 

Lack of Popularity 

The Aam Aadmi Party has claimed several times regarding the delay in the elections that the BJP is deliberately delaying the elections. The BJP is afraid that it may lose the elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.  Apart from this, the BJP also adopted the delay tactic so that the anger among the voters towards the party would reduce with the passage of time and they would also get a chance to make their election strategy afresh.