MCD elections to be held on December 4

The elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will be held on December 4 and the counting of votes will take place on December 7, State Election Commissioner Vijay Dev announced on Friday. 

Candidates can file their nomination papers from November 7 to 14. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on November 16 and the last date for withdrawal is November 19.

The model code of conduct came into effect on Friday. 

“The entire electoral process will be completed by December 15,” Mr. Dev said. 

The announcement of dates for the civic polls comes months after the previously scheduled elections to the city’s three erstwhile municipal corporations – North, South and East – in April were called off due to the Centre’s decision to merge the civic bodies into one unified MCD. 

Apart from the merger, the amendments to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, also resulted in reduction in the total number of seats (wards) to 250 from 272. The final report of the delimitation exercise was approved and published by the Centre on October 17. 

Of the 250 wards, 42 seats have been reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) candidates – including 21 for SC women – while 104 seats each have been reserved for general category and women candidates. 

Mr. Dev said there will be 13,665 polling stations across the 250 wards, while the total number of voters in the city stands at 1.46 crore, according to the electoral rolls with the qualifying date of January 1, 2022. 

The erstwhile MCD, established in 1958, was trifurcated in 2012 during Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s tenure.