The BJP is gearing up to corner the Aam Aadmi Party as it hopeful of conducting the municipal polls in the national capital in December.
The work on draft delimitation of wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has been completed and suggestions and objections can be sent by people. The central government has fixed the total number of seats in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi at 250 from the existing figure of 272. This was stated in a Delhi Gazette notification issued on Saturday.
Reports suggest that the new wards are expected to be drawn up by November and the civic polls process, which includes notification by the State Election Commission, is likely to begin by the end of December this year.
The BJP is gearing up to corner the Aam Aadmi Party as it hopeful of conducting the municipal polls in the national capital in December along with the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.
The reduction in the number of seats implies that polls will now be held on 250 seats. The commission altered the geography of 22 of the 70 Vidhan Sabha constituencies with one ward being decreased in each. The remaining 48 were not touched.
Vidhan Sabha constituencies with more number of wards were basically chosen to achieve parity in terms of size. For instance, a Vidhan Sabha seat that had seven wards, three other assembly segments which had six wards, and twelve assembly segments with five wards saw a reduction in the number of wards. The Assembly constituencies that saw geographical changes are Burari, Rithala, Bawana, Mundka, Kirari, Najafgarh, Bijwasan, Narela, Deoli, Babarpur, Okhla, Uttam Nagar, and Vikaspuri.
This will have a considerable impact on the municipal poll outcome. Both the AAP and Congress have charged that the BJP has made these geographical alterations for electoral benefits.
The changes will have a direct impact on 24 Assembly constituencies. Of the wards where changes have been made, nearly 100 are those where there is a lot of disparity in terms of population.
For instance, the population of Mayur Vihar is 93,381, while the population of Chandni Chowk ward is 35,509; Laxminagar has a population of 35,684, while Lalita Park has a population of 83,782; in Krishna Nagar assembly constituency, the population of Anarkali ward is 49,180 while the adjoining Jagatpuri ward has a population of 83,636.
The population of Gokalpuri ward in Gokalpur constituency is 44,658 while the population of Harsh Vihar ward is 87,009.
The MCD polls, originally scheduled for April, were put off hours before the election schedule was to be announced. The election was called off as the Centre wanted to unify the MCDs from three to one and also conduct delimitation to decrease the number of wards.
Following the reunification of the MCD and the passage of the Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Centre has now reduced the number of wards from 272 to 250. Earlier, North and South MCDs had 104 wards each while East MCD had 64 wards.
The MCD polls, which are likely to be held anytime in the next few months, are expected to play a crucial role in gauging the mood of national capital’s voters ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election as all seven seats from Delhi have elected BJP nominees in 2014 and 2019.
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