Gurgaon: Just a day after the city’s senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor elections were abruptly deferred due to mayor Raj Rani Malhotra’s “medical reasons,” she was back in the public eye on Friday morning: broom in hand, smiling alongside MCG officials and councillors at the launch of the civic body’s two-week cleanliness campaign, Naya Shehar, Nayi Soch.The optics renewed questions over repeated postponement of key elections that have already remained pending for more than a year despite recent intervention from Punjab and Haryana high court. In March, MCG had assured the high court that elections to the two long-vacant posts would be completed within eight weeks after a petition underscored how Gurgaon had been functioning without deputy mayors for over a year.Despite the court’s order and preparations at Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA), the process stalled because of the mayor’s absence. Residents said the repeated delays reflect a lack of seriousness toward governance and public accountability.Sudakshina Lana, a resident of Sushant Lok, said deferment of polls has sent a wrong message. “The election of the deputies has been delayed for more than a year,” she said, adding that such behaviour gives the notion that these are dummy positions, that these posts are not needed at all.The delay has implications beyond symbolism. Under the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor are statutory posts and mandatory members of Finance and Contracts Committee (F&CC), which oversees major civic expenditure and contract approvals. Their prolonged absence has raised concerns over whether the committee’s functioning fully complies with the law. The mayor could not be reached for comment.Section 71(2) of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Election Rules, 1994, states that “the commissioner shall, within a period of 60 days of the notification of the names of the members elected to the corporation, convene a meeting of the corporation at 48-hour notice to be delivered at the ordinary place of residence of members. The notice shall clearly state that the election of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor shall be held in this meeting to be presided over by the mayor in the presence of the commissioner.”Kundan Lal Sharma, a resident of Sector 21, said the delay was especially troubling given the city’s governance challenges. “Amid the city’s pressing civic challenges, it is concerning that a cadre-based party — governing at all three levels, the Centre, state, and MCG — has been unable to build consensus. Elections were postponed citing the mayor’s illness. Subsequent public engagement of the mayor raises questions about veracity of illness. In light of the high court’s directions, the elections should be promptly rescheduled. Gurgaon needs steady, credible, hands-on leadership to tackle its woes,” he said.A senior MCG official said, “The polls could not be conducted without the presence of the mayor. It will be conducted within two weeks.”
