Delhi To Get Its First Woman Mayor After A Decade

Delhi MCD: The elected mayor will be the first woman in a decade to hold the mayoral position for the whole city after the unification of the civic body post delimitation exercise.

National capital Delhi is set to get a woman mayor after a decade ( Image Source :MCD Website )

New Delhi: The national capital Delhi is all set to get a woman mayor in one decade as the MCD House convenes a second time in a month to elect the mayor and deputy mayor for the city. 

Aam Aadmi Party, which won the MCD polls, has fielded Shelly Oberoi and Ashu Thakur for the post while the Bharatiya Janta Party has made Rekha Gupta its candidate. 

The civic body polls, which were held on December 4, were the first after the three corporations were merged into the MCD and a fresh delimitation exercise was carried out. The exercise reduced the total number of wards from 272 in 2012 to 250. 

As a result, the elected mayor of the national capital will be for the city as a whole after a gap of ten years. 

Law scholar Rajni Abbi was the last to be elected to the top post in the MCD in 2011 before its trifurcation, reported PTI. 

Interestingly, the Delhi MCD’s first mayor was also a woman. When the body came into existence in 1958, legendary freedom fighter Aruna Asaf Ali was appointed to the top post. 

The municipal corporation was divided into three separate civic bodies in 2012 namely-- North, South and East municipal corporations. Each of them had its own mayor. However, the three civic bodies were reunited last year, and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) again came into existence. 

The Centre brought legislation to merge the three bodies of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (104 wards), the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (104 wards) and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (64 wards).  

As a result, the number of wards was capped at 250 from 272. 

The tenure of the mayor in the national capital is for five single-year terms on a rotation basis. The first year is reserved for women, the second for open category, third for reserved category, and the remaining two again for the open category, the PTI report added.