It seems that 2017 Municipal Corporation elections will not be a cakewalk for the BJP, which has been ruling the three civic bodies for more than a decade, after it suffered a blow as it could manage only three seats in the civic bypolls for 13 wards, results of which were declared on Tuesday.
While debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sprinted ahead in the race by bagging five seats followed by the Congress that made a comeback by winning four seats.
The BJP, which had won 7 out of the 13 wards in the 2012 MCD elections, could manage to win only Wazirpur, Nawada and Shalimar Bagh (North) wards in the bypolls.
After the debacle it suffered in the 2015 Assembly elections at the hands of the AAP, the party was looking forward to regain its lost popularity but the election results appear to have dashed its hope. Moreover, the party’s vote share has come down by six per cent, from 40.9 per cent in 2012 to 34.11 per cent in 2016.
Also, the party lost on all seats that were touted to be BJP’s stronghold. Wards like Shalimar Bagh, Matiala, Nanakpura and Jhilmil have been the party’s traditional seats but this time around the BJP lost three of them to the AAP and Jhilmil to the Congress.
Reacting on the results, Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay said, “Though we are a few seats short of our expectation but our voting percentage has gone up since 2015 Assembly elections as a result of party’s hard work. Due to people distancing themselves from the AAP, the party has lost in four of its wards vacated by its sitting MlAs. These wards include Munirka (Pramila Tokas), Kamruddin Nagar (Raghavender Shokeen), Nawada (Naresh Balyan) and Bhati (Kartar Singh).”
Delhi BJP Secretary Ashish Sood said, “There is no link of these bypolls with the upcoming 2017 MCD elections. Both the elections are two different ball games.”
BJP candidate Bhupinder Mohan Bhandari won from Shalimar Bagh by a margin of 1,451 votes. Party candidate Mahender Nagpal won Wazirpur ward by 3,608 votes while Nawada candidate Krishan Gehlot won by 4,843 votes. It is noteworthy that out of the four MlAs fielded by the BJP, including Mahendra Nagpal, Krishna Gehlot, Jitender Singh Shunty and Vinod Kumar Binny, two MlAs Mahender Nagpal and Krishna Gehlot could win.