- Wins in MCD elections convincingly
- BJP’s performance respectful
- Congress goes further down
The Aam Admi Party has beaten the BJP in the Municipal elections too. In an election that turned out to be absorbing and closer than expected by the exit pollsters, the AAP has taken a convincing lead at the end of the counting on Wednesday. BJP, though lost its hegemony over municipal affairs for 15 year, did not lose that badly. While the AAP got 134 seats, the BJP won 104 seats offering to be a strong opposition. The BJP which campaigned with the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave some uneasy moments to APP in the early stages of counting. The Congress which ruled Delhi for fifteen years with Sheila Kaul as chief minister before Kejriwal’s storm, was reduced to single digit,9. In 2017 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls, the BJP won for second time with 181 seats of the total of 272 wards and the AAP bagged only 48 wards while the Congress won 30 seats.
Sanjay Singh, AAP leader, said ”The BJP would always say AAP has only defeated Congress. Today, Arvind Kijriwal has given them an answer.” This win was the first scored by the AAP against the BJP in any election. Its wins in Delhi have been either against the Congress or a vote of confidence while already in power. It won against the Congress in Punjab early this year. Even when the AAP was making waves in Assembly elections, the BJP retained its power in MCD in 2017.
With the death of Sheila Dikshit in 2019, there was no pan-Delhi leader for the Congress party who could lead it. The party leadership engrossed with the Bharat Jodo Yatra by Rahul Gandhi did not focus on either Gujarat or Delhi.
Arvind Kejriwal said the AAP needs Centre’s cooperation and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s blessings. After ending BJP’s 15-year rule in MCD, Kejriwal said AAP victory gives a ‘double engine’ advantage to the Delhi’s ruling party. Since it came to power in 2015, the AAP was entrusted with the responsibility of ruling the municipal affairs for the first time.
