Delhi Assembly Elections : Top 10 Facts

By Deepak Parvatiyar

November 15, 2014

The momentum for election to the 70-member Delhi Assembly, expected to be held in February next year, is gradually picking up. Delhi has been the quintessential seat of power from time immemorial. Its origins are traced to the Mahabharata period and the city remained the preferred capital of many empires and dynasties that ruled India for centuries. The British took control of the city in 1803 A.D. but during the rule of the British East India Company, Calcutta, being a port, was chosen the capital city till King George V decided to move the capital back to Delhi in 1911. Following are some of major points that characterize its electoral history :

1. Delhi became a Part-C State after Independence

Being the national capital, certain kind of autonomy was envisaged for Delhi after Independence and it was accorded the status of a ‘C’ category state. Part-C states had limited legislative powers and Delhi thus largely remained a chief commissioner’s regime.
The first Delhi Legislative Assembly election to the 48-member Delhi Legislative Assembly was held on March 27, 1952. The Congress won the 1952 assembly elections in Delhi by bagging 39 of the 47 seats that it contested. The Bharatiya Jan Sangh had then won five of the 31 seats that it had contested. The other two parties that won seats then were the Socialist Party (2 seats) and the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (1 seat). The first Delhi House also had a solitary Independent member in 1952.

2. The Advisory role of the Delhi Council of Ministers

Since Delhi was a Part-C state, the council of ministers of the Delhi government had the role cut out to them to advise the Chief Commissioner of Delhi in the “exercise of his functions in relation to matters in respect of which the State Assembly was given powers to make laws”.

3. Delhi as a Union Territory

Delhi’s transition from C category state to Union territory was based on the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission that was set up in 1953. Its recommendation led to the Constitution amendment through States Reorganisation Act, 1956, which came into effect on 1 November 1956 resulting in Delhi ceasing to be a state with immediate effect. It became a Union Territory (UT) under the direct administration of the President and its Legislative Assembly and the Council of Ministers were abolished.

The States Reorganisation Commission’s another recommendation resulted in the enactment of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 that led to the setting up of the Municipal Corporation for the whole of Delhi.

The public pressure for a broad-based democratic establishment for Delhi, however, kept on building. The demand intensified when Delhi and Lakshadweep, Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar and Dadra and Nagar Haveli were excluded from the purview of Article 239A, which was inserted in the Constitution by the Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Act, 1962 and  provided for creation of local legislatures or Council of Ministers or both for some of the then Union Territories.

Finally, as part of a compromise formula, an interim Delhi Metropolitan Council – a unicameral democratic body – was constituted under the Delhi Administration Act, 1966 with 56 elected and 5 members nominated by the President. The Chief Commissioner was replaced by a Lieutenant Governor who headed the Council and was appointed by the President of India under Article 239 of the Constitution.

4.  Statehood

The Delhi Metropolitan Council had no legislative powers and only had an advisory role in the governance of Delhi. Although this arrangement continued till 1990, the demand for full statehood to Delhi continued unabated.

The Sarkaria Committee (later on called the Balakrishan Committee), in its report submitted on 14th December 1989, addressed the issues of administration concerning Delhi and recommended that though Delhi should continue to be a UT, it should be provided with a Legislative Assembly and a Council of Ministers. Following the recommendations, the Delhi Metropolitan Council was replaced by the Delhi Legislative Assembly through the Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991, followed by the Government of National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi Act, 1991.

This led to a system wherein the elected government of Delhi was given legislative powers except law and order which remained with the central Government. The NCT of Delhi came into force in 1993.

5.  Delhi Legislative Assembly

Like all other states with the exception of Jammu and Kashmir, the Delhi Legislative Assembly has a term of five years. The last Assembly was the fifth such Assembly that came into force after the December 2013 state elections in Delhi.

The strength of the present Delhi House is 70. The Congress Party has occupied the treasury benches of the state House for the longest period while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have occupied that space once each.

6.  The First Chief Minister of Delhi

Chaudhary Brahm Prakash (1918–1993) of the Congress was the first chief minister of Delhi. He was born in Jaffarpur Kalan near Najafgarh.

A freedom fighter, he had participated in the Satyagraha Movement and was also involved in “underground” activities in Delhi during the Quit India movement. Prakash also served as a Union Minister after Independence.

7.  Chief Ministers of Delhi

The first chief minister Brahm Prakash was succeeded by his partyman, GN Singh who was the CM from 1955 to 1956. Thereafter, Delhi could have a CM only in 1993. This was the only time that the BJP formed the government in the newly constituted state. In the five years of its term, the BJP had three CMs — Madanlal Khurana, Sahib Singh Varma and Sushma Swaraj. The Congress defeated the BJP in the 1998 elections and for the next three terms, it was the Congress under Shiela Dikshit that ruled the state.

The elections in December 2013, however, resulted in a hung assembly in Delhi. Arvind Kejriwal, who had defeated Dikshit in the fray and whose newly formed AAP emerged as the second largest party in the state Assembly after the BJP, finally became the CM with the outside support of the Congress. His government lasted only for 49 days and for the first time, the Assembly had to be kept under suspended animation and President’s rule had to be imposed in Delhi.

8.  No Muslim CM in Delhi

It is interesting that despite being ruled by Muslim rulers for centuries, Delhi has not had any Muslim chief minister after Independence. The reasons are obvious: Hindus constitute about 81 percent of the population in Delhi as against the Muslims (10.7 percent), Sikhs (4 percent), Baha’i (3 percent), Jains (1.1 percent) and Christians (0.9 percent).

9. The 2013 Assembly Elections saw the Highest Poll Violations

The Assembly elections 2013 in Delhi witnessed the highest number of violations of the Model Code of Conduct in the city-state to date. In all, 346 FIRs were registered against the political parties during the last elections and the newly formed AAP led the pack with 105 FIRs against it followed by the Congress (88) and the BJP (86).

The Election Commission also reported seizure of 70 unlicensed arms, 60 cartridges, 42,000 litres of liquor estimated at over Rs 1 crore, and cash amounting to Rs.1.6 crore during the elections.

10. Fresh Assembly Elections in Delhi

It has been after much deliberation that fresh assembly elections are slated to be held in Delhi probably in February 2015. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) dispensation at the Centre dragged the issue amidst foul play charges by the AAP which even accused the BJP of luring its MLAs in a bid to form its government. However, BJP’s spectacular victories in the Assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra finally led to the Centre approving dissolution of the Delhi assembly.

Whose game is it now? Let’s wait and see.