NEW DELHI: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is gearing up to elect its new mayor and deputy mayor in an election scheduled on Friday. Preparations are underway as procedural formalities are being concluded. Officials also said that the house premises situated on the fourth floor of A-block in the civic centre have been decked-up to hold the mayoral poll.
“Arrangements have been made to sit 300 people which include all the councillors and officers including the commissioner, director, deputy director and others,” a senior official said. According to officials, provisional election ID has been issued to all 250 newly-elected municipal councillors who will cast their voting rights to elect the chief and second-in-command of the house.
However, the name of the presiding officer is yet to be finalized by the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) house. “We expect the final name to come today,” informed Amit Kumar, press and information officer, MCD
Meanwhile, the L-G, using his special powers, has nominated 10 councillors who will act as aldermen and will participate in the poll. Sources informed that all the nominated members are councillors from the BJP.
According to sources, of the 10 councillors, five are from civil lines zone, four are from Narela zone and one from Central zone. The list is with MCD secretary and will be made public today, an official said.
Apart from them, 10 MPs (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) and 14 MLAs will also participate in the polls. The MLAs have been nominated by Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, which include one from BJP while the rest are from AAP.
The AAP has fielded first time councillor from East Patel Nagar Shelly Oberoi as its Mayoral candidate while Aaley Mohammed Iqbal, councillor from Chandni Mahal ward, will contest for the post of deputy mayor.
The BJP has named Rekha Gupta and Kamal Bagdi as its candidates for elections to the posts of Mayor and deputy mayor, respectively. Gupta is a three-term councillor from Shalimar Bagh while Bagdi was elected for the first time from Ram Nagar.
