For the first time in MCD elections, None Of The Above (NOTA) option will be available to voters.
The upcoming municipal polls for the North, East and South Municipal Corporation of Delhi, scheduled to take place on April 23, will have 1.10 lakh new voters. This will be the first civic poll after the latest delimitation exercise which has redrawn the 272 civic wards based on 2011 Census. Each ward now has an average of 60,000 people with an estimated 40,000 voters.
Before the delimitation, every constituency had four wards, but now the number ranges from three to seven. The erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was trifurcated in 2012 into North, South and East Municipal Corporations. While the North and South Corporation have 104 wards each, East Corporation has 64.
For the first time in MCD elections, None Of The Above (NOTA) option will be available to voters. The number of candidates in the wards range from three to 23. One EVM can accommodate 16 candidates.
The BJP, which has been at the helm of MCD for the last 10 years, has decided to field none of its 153 sitting councillors and contest the polls with only fresh faces. While the BJP, fresh from its win in the Rajouri Garden by-poll, is seeking to retain its turf, the Congress, which finished second, is also hoping for a resurgence.
The AAP is aiming to repeat its 2015 Delhi Assembly performance but its humiliating defeat in the by-election and drubbing in Punjab may have hit the morale of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's party. But he told his supporters that these results should not be seen as a "trailer of the MCD polls".
The State Election Commission is running awareness campaigns, in print, and on radio and television to encourage people to vote. The result will be announced on April 26.