Voting in high-stakes MCD elections today
NEW DELHI: Over 14.5 million electors will be eligible to vote across 250 municipal wards in the national capital on Sunday, a step closer to the end of a fierce battle for control of the city’s civic body between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
This is the first time since 2012, when the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, established in 1958, was trifurcated under then chief minister Sheila Dikshit, that Delhi’s citizens will vote for a unified civic body.
According to data shared by state election commission officials, the total number of voters in Delhi is 14,505,358 — 7,893,418 men, 6,610,879 women and 1,061 transpersons. A total of 1,349 candidates are in the fray, the data showed.
Municipal polls may appear less important than state or national elections but hold far more sway in the everyday life of an urban citizen. For Delhi’s residents, no agency holds more influence on their lives than MCD, which registers births, deaths and marriages, clears garbage, oversees primary education, provides health care services, maintains colony roads and runs crematoriums.
With an annual budget of ₹15,200 crore and around 150,000 employees, MCD is usually the first port of call for Delhi’s residents, and a crucial determinant of how India’s arguably most-important Union