What makes the MCD Standing Committee more powerful than the Mayor of Delhi? – Delhi News

Even before the polling bell for the parliamentary elections in Delhi has sounded, the battle for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is intensifying, as elections to the city administration's district committees took place on Wednesday.

Delhi's municipal councillors cast their votes to elect a chairman and vice-chairman for nine of the 12 zonal-level district committees, and one member each to the Standing Committee, the highest decision-making body of the MCD.

These district committee elections are significant because the numerically inferior BJP, if it wins more constituencies and gains a majority in the 18-member Standing Committee, could gain financial and administrative superiority over the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Such a situation could therefore lead to another power struggle in the capital.

Why a standing committee has more power than the mayor

The Standing Committee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is a very important body which is considered more important than the House of Municipal Corporation.

The Standing Committee is a body of 18 elected councilors vested with financial and administrative powers. Of the 18 members of the Standing Committee, six are directly elected from the MCD House while the remaining 12 members are elected from the 12 municipal wards of Delhi.

In this way, each zone is represented by at least one member in the Standing Committee, making the work of the Committee comprehensive and involving representatives of all zones.

Administrative, financial and labour matters of the Delhi Municipal Corporation are first considered in the Standing Committee. If a proposal is not accepted by the Standing Committee, it is not placed for consideration in the MCD House.

This means that the responsibility for the primary review and approval of proposals lies with the Standing Committee, which in turn means that the Parliament, chaired by the Mayor, can only deal with those issues that are submitted to it following the recommendation of the Standing Committee.

A chairman is elected from the 18 members of the Standing Committee, whose powers are also extensive. In various matters, the chairman has greater powers than the MCD mayor. That is, although the mayor is constitutionally the head, the chairman of the Standing Committee is functionally more influential.

The meeting of the Standing Committee shall normally be convened weekly and shall include the presence of all senior officers, including the MCD Commissioner.

The election of the six members of the standing committee from the House of Representatives is also a challenge. Like the members of the Rajya Sabha, they are elected using a proportional representation system, where each member needs at least 38 preferential votes. The term of office of each standing committee is two years. This means that every year three of the six members elected from the House of Representatives retire.

However, different rules apply to members elected from the zone. They are not elected by proportional representation, but by a general vote of their fellow council members in their own zone.

The term of the members elected from the areas is also only one year. In the district committee elections to be held on Wednesday, one such member has to be elected from each zone. So, all efforts are being made because the 12 members elected from different zones, and whichever party gets the upper hand, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or Bharatiya Janata Party, have a good chance of holding the key to the standing committee.

The AAP has more members in the House. But unless it gets a majority in the Standing Committee, no proposal of the party will reach the House, that is, it will be rejected in the Standing Committee itself.

The AAP would not benefit from such a situation, even if it had its own mayor and a majority in the House of Representatives.

The long-awaited elections to district committees in Delhi will be held for the first time since the merger of the district committees in 2022. A political stalemate between the AAP and the BJP prevented the elections from being held as scheduled.