The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a Bill to merge the trifurcated municipal corporations of Delhi. The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill is expected to be introduced in Parliament during the ongoing Budget session, reported PTI.

The Delhi Municipal Corporation was trifurcated into South Delhi Municipal Corporation, North Delhi Municipal Corporation, and East Delhi Municipal Corporation in 2012 by the then Shiela Dixit-led Congress government.

The Bill has been approved days after the Aam Aadmi Party on March 17 moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Election Commission to conduct the Delhi civic polls in a “free, fair and expeditious manner, without any interference from the Centre.”

The municipal corporation elections were scheduled to be held in April. However, on March 9, the Election Commission deferred the polling indefinitely, citing a communication from Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.

On Tuesday, Aam Aadmi Party MLA and national spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj described the Bill to merge the civic bodies as a ploy to further delay the elections.

At a press conference, another party MLA Atishi said that the matter should have been addressed earlier as the Bharatiya Janata Party has been in power in the municipal corporations of Delhi for the last 15 years, and at the Centre for seven years.

She alleged that the Bill was a tactic to delay the civic body polls. The BJP conceived the idea of unification of the civic bodies after seeing the Punjab election results, which the AAP won, Atishi said.