Elections for 3 municipal corporations in Delhi to be held in April: SEC

The State Election Commission has notified that elections for the three municipal corporations in Delhi will be held in April and the publication of the lists of polling stations will begin from Wednesday.

Due to the pandemic, the limit of voters per polling station has been fixed as 1250. The lists of polling stations will be published by the returning officers in their respective offices for the wards, with effect from February 23, it said.

"It is notified for the information of general public, political parties and all concerned that General Elections to 272 wards of three Municipal Corporation of Delhi are scheduled to be held in April- 2022," stated a public notice issued by the Commission.

The general public, intending candidates, political parties can inspect the lists of polling stations and file suggestions and objections, if any, with the respective returning officers till February 28, said the notice.

There are over 14,000 polling stations in Delhi spread over 70 Assembly constituencies. Delhi has three municipal corporations - North, South and East Delhi municipal corporations - and the last civic polls were held in April 2017.

In a previous order issued in January this year, the State Election Commission had stated that the number of wards reserved for the SC category in the three corporations as - NDMC (20), SDMC (15) and EDMC (11), proportionate to the population, or 19.38 percent, 14.15 percent and 16.58 percent respectively.

The five-year term of the three Houses is ending in April 2022 and half of the 275 wards are reserved for women candidates.

The BJP is currently ruling all three corporations. The party is controlling the civic bodies since the trifurcation of the erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in 2012.