MCD elections to start from April 22: Delhi poll chief

The Delhi Municipal Corporation (MCD) elections will be held on April 22 and counting for the same will be done on April 25. Meanwhile, state Election Commissioner SK Shrivastava stated that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would be used in the upcoming municipal corporation elections in Delhi.

"The polls to the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi will be held on April 22 and counting will take place on April 25," said State Election Commissioner SK Srivastava

Speaking on the nomination process, Srivastava stated that it will begin from March 27 and conclude on April 3. "Scrutiny of nominations will take place on April 5 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination is April 8," he added. Also, the expenditure limit for a candidate has been hiked from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 5.75 lakh.

Incidentally, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has expressed reservations about electronic voting machines (EVMs) and has sought the use of ballot papers in the civic polls.

On being asked to respond to Kejriwal seeking the use of traditional mode of exercising franchise, Srivastava said, "Voting through EVMs is very safe. And, if the polls are to be conducted through ballot then some of the rules have to be amended."

"We have started the preparations for the polls keeping in mind use of EVMs only. The dates have been assigned accordingly. We have sent our comments to the government on this," the State Election Commissioner said.

According to the political analysis, the upcoming MCD polls will a three-cornered contest between the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress.

-Also, AAP that cruised to a landslide victory in the Assembly elections in 2015 hopes to replicate the success in the corporation election as well. The city has seen frequent war of words between the AAP-led Delhi government and the BJP-led MCD.

Currently, the three corporations are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP has 153 councillors in the three civic bodies, namely North Delhi Municipal Corporation , South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC). There at 272 seats at stake with north MCD and SDMC accounting for 104 seats each, while 64 seats fall under EDMC.