Delhi BJP eyes MCD zone president polls

Sources in the party said that the BJP is keeping an eye on seven zones out of a total of 12 zones.

NEW DELHI: After losing the MCD elections to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Delhi BJP is now focusing on the zone president elections of the MCD. According to sources in the party, BJP is keeping an eye on seven zones out of a total of 12 zones.
After the elections of the mayor and deputy mayor, elections for the zonal presidents could take place. This week, the Delhi BJP announced the names of Rekha Gupta and Kamal Bagdi as candidates for the post of mayor and deputy mayor. This sudden U-turn by the BJP on mayoral elections came after AAP announced their candidates for mayoral elections.
The AAP has announced Dr Shelly Oberoi and Aale Mohammad Iqbal as candidates for the post of mayor and deputy mayor. The BJP’s sudden move came after the party announced that it will not run for the mayoral elections.
In the Shadra South, Shadra North, Keshavpur and Najafgarh zones, the BJP has majority and, in these zones, the BJP would have their zonal president. In other zones, BJP may garner votes from the nominee members (aldermen).
The ward committee structure of the zone is provided in the Delhi Municipal Act, 1957, for various administrative decisions in a zone. These committees consist of all elected councillors from that zone and nominated members (aldermen) if any. LG has the power to nominate 10 such aldermen altogether. There is no mandate on the number that can be nominated from one zone. It could be zero or all ten can come from the same zone thereby altering the power balance. Aldermen have the power to vote at the ward committee level. Each ward committee elects a member of the all-powerful MCD standing committee.
On 6 January, after taking oath, MCD elected members will vote for the post of mayor, deputy mayor and six-member standing committee.
The BJP has also named candidates Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Dwarka, former Mayor of the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Gajendra Daral, Mundka, and Pankaj Luthra, Jhilmil, for the standing committee.
The 6 January election for the mayor is going to be interesting because the anti-defection law does not apply to the councillors. The electoral college for the mayor election includes 250 elected councillors.
10 Parliament members from Delhi and 1/5 members from Delhi legislative Assembly. In elections held last month, AAP won 134 seats and BJP, which ruled the MCD for 15 years, won 104 seats and the Congress got nine seats in the 250-member MCD.