Municipal wards redrawn in Delhi: The delimitation process and the politics over it explained
Municipal wards redrawn in Delhi: The delimitation process and the politics over it explained
Delhi’s civic wards have been redrawn, paving the way for municipal elections, which were scheduled to be held in April.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has approved the final draft after the delimitation process to change the boundaries of wards under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was completed by the commission appointed to oversee the process.
According to the gazette notification, the government has “fixed the total number of seats as 250 in the Corporation out of which 42 seats have been reserved for members of Scheduled Castes.”
Union Home Ministry issued Final Delimitation Order, 2022 for Wards of Municipal Corporation of Delhi. pic.twitter.com/uZ8z0VQZ4P
— ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2022
The number of wards has been reduced from 272 to 250.
What is delimitation?
According to the Election Commission (EC), delimitation is defined as “the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body”. It involves redrawing the boundaries of constituencies to reflect the population change. The change is made based on the census.
The boundaries of Assembly or Lok Sabha constituencies can be redrawn. In Delhi, wards of MCD are rejigged. It is undertaken by the Delimitation Commission or the Boundary Commission.
Why were the limits of Delhi redrawn?
The Delhi civic elections were to be held in April but were postponed. This decision was announced only hours before the schedule for the election was expected.
The Centre wanted to merge Delhi’s three municipal corporations – South, North, and East – into one and hence the delimitation process was initiated.
In April, Parliament passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 for the merger.
The MCD was trifurcated in 2012 under the Sheila Dikshit government to decentralise governance. After the process, the North and East civic bodies faced financial distress. The division of resources was also reportedly unequal between them at the South MCD, which is cash-rich, according to a report in The Indian Express.
Why is the AAP upset with the delimitation?
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been ruling the civic bodies for 15 years, while the Aam Aadmi Party rules the state.
The Centre’s decision to merge the three municipal corporations is being looked at by the AAP – from whom it faces stiff competition in the polls – as an excuse to delay the election. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party said that it was BJP’s ploy to buy time after the big defeat in the Punjab Assembly elections in March.
Last month, the party opposed the draft plan submitted by the Delimitation Commission, saying it was “politically motivated”.
“The exercise has been called out for lack of logic, rationale and reason by experts across the board. It has been argued that the reorganisation of wards under MCD delimitation may pose a threat to the development of the national capital and put interests of the working-class wards in the dark,” AAP had added in a statement.
The party has also moved Supreme Court against the “flagrant meddling” of the Centre in the conduct of the municipal polls in Delhi using “brazen influence” over the State Election Commission (SEC) to postpone the elections. According to AAP, redrawing wards will introduce disparity in population and sizes of the civic administrative units, reports NDTV.
“People are questioning the move. It has been seven-eight years since the BJP is at the Centre, why didn’t they do it (unification) earlier,” AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal had said. “The BJP knows that there is an AAP wave in Delhi and they would lose.”
How does the BJP benefit from the process?
According to insiders, the BJP state unit wanted the MCD polls to be deferred by six months. It wanted to use the time to convince the people of Delhi that things have changed after the Centre decided to unify the civic bodies, according to a report in The Indian Express.
Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta had said that the trifurcation had weakened the financial health of the civic bodies and unification will help in making the corporation financially stable. “Unification of MCDs will also help in better development works and timely disbursal of salaries of employees,” he had added.
When will the Delhi civic polls be held?
Now that the delimitation exercise is finalised, the Centre will ask the state election commission to start with the process of declaring the dates of the civic elections. The MCD polls can be held either at the end of this year or in early 2023.
According to a report in NDTV, the Delhi civic polls could be held at the same time as the Gujarat Assembly elections. This will ensure the AAP is engaged in the Capital. The party has been campaigning in Gujarat, hoping to make inroads in the state.
AAP leader Durgesh Pathak said that the party is ready for civic polls and people of Delhi will teach a lesson to BJP as they have failed to keep the city clean.
With inputs from agencies
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