MCD elections: As SEC rushes for legal opinion, BJP leaders praise unification

New Delhi: As the Delhi State Election Commission rushes for a legal opinion on whether it can proceed with the civic polls in the city, senior BJP leaders and ex-mayors have already started praising the Union government for taking the initiative and speaking out in favour of the unification of the three municipal corporations.

The commission after receiving the communication on Wednesday deferred the announcement of poll dates for the South, North and East MCDs. It had received a note from the L-G's office that the Union government was bringing a law to unify the civic bodies, which flustered the election body and the announcement of poll dates was deferred.

The Union government will have to make an amendment to the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act to unify the three municipalities.

Sources said that a detailed note has been prepared on Wednesday's development and it will be submitted to legal experts for their advice.

If the commission decides to go ahead with the polls without taking legal opinion on the issue then there are chances that the election exercise may be futile, they said.

"The Centre's intentions is clear. It will re-unify the municipalities in Delhi. So, the commission will have to think over it and act accordingly in connection with the polls," an official said.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders are hoping that the move to reunify the MCDs would be seen as a major attempt to resolve the civic bodies' financial woes. Some are also saying that it if this were to happen, it would prove that the trifurcation was the reason for the corporations' poor financials.

Senior BJP leader and former South Delhi mayor Subhash Arya, who has served as a leader of the House and as a Leader of the Opposition during the period of the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), said, "We had opposed the move to trifurcate the MCD back then also, when it was proposed during the Sheila Dikshit government in Delhi".

"Reunifying them is a good option, and it will improve the financial condition of the three local bodies," Arya said.

Yogender Chandolia, another senior party leader and former mayor of New Delhi echoed Arya, and also pitched for greater power to the post of mayor. "Reunification of the three corporations was very much-needed, and it will surely improve the financial condition of the three corporations," he said.

Former East Delhi mayor Nirmal Jain said, "The reunification of the three corporations will undo a lot of issues that have cropped up since trifurcation. And, this should have been done long ago".

Jain, who has served on an important post in the unified MCD era, and as a mayor post-trifurcation, also said, "In a corporation in Delhi, a municipal commissioner has vast and wide powers as the executive wing, and the mayor represents the deliberative wing. And, if re-unification is happening, I suggest more powers should be accorded to a mayor".