In the excitement generated in urban India by the election of Zohran Mamdani as the mayor of New York, few have asked where the mayors in India are. Many cities do have mayors but few know of them given their limited powers. Most in the nation’s capital would know that Rekha Gupta is the chief minister of Delhi but few would be aware that Raja Iqbal Singh is the mayor.
The visibility of public officials is a function of their real power — administrative and financial. India’s chief ministers have been able to retain considerable power, despite the growing centralization of power within the Central government, but none of them has been willing to share that power with heads of local government.