NEW DELHI: With the announcement of the MCD mayoral election on April 25, the BJP sees the opportunity to form its triple-engine government for the first time in Delhi. The BJP, which lost the MCD elections in 2022, is comfortable to snatch the posts of mayor and deputy mayor from the AAP this time.
In the 2022 MCD polls, the AAP won 134 wards, BJP 104, Congress 9, and Independents 3. The BJP has an advantage this time as it has 131 votes, while the majority mark, as per current equations, is 132.
At present, the BJP has 113 councillors. Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta has nominated 14 MLAs to participate in voting. Eleven belong to BJP, and the remaining three to AAP. As per the DMC Act, seven Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi will also vote. The former belong to the BJP, whereas the latter are from AAP (one of them, Swati Maliwal, won’t vote for the party and anti-defection law is not applicable in civic bodies.)
The AAP has 122 votes, and can reach 131 only if Congress, with eight councilors, extends support. It won’t because it parted ways before the Assembly polls. The AAP has 116 councillors, three nominated MLAs, the vote of two Rajya Sabha MPs, and the support of a lone Independent councillor.
On February 15, the BJP became the single largest party in the MCD after three AAP councillors switched to it.