The MCD bypoll campaign ended on Friday with the three main political parties making their last bid to win hearts and minds of the voters on the last day of poll campaign as the 13 MCD wards. The polls are to be held on Sunday. The counting will take place on May 17.
While the Congress roped in national leaders and celebrities to regain its political ground; BJP MPs were seen campaigning in their wards to bag the largest vote share with debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) following the agenda of door-to-door campaign. The bypoll, also touted as semi-finals of the 2017 elections.
High on the mandate given to it in the 2015 Assembly elections, AAP is now eyeing maximum number of seats in the bypoll. Senior leaders and Ministers of the Delhi Government, including Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Kapil Mishra and Kumar Vishwas attended public meetings in the wards. “As we have been working on corruption-free Delhi, we have been getting overwhelming support from people. We are hopeful to win all 13 seats and to create another record after the Delhi Assembly polls,” said Deepak Bajpai, AAP spokesperson.
The party was first to release the list of its candidates for all the 13 wards and has been working on door-to-door canvassing besides campaigning on the social media. Of the 13 wards where bypolls will be held, seven fall under the jurisdiction of the SDMC, four in the NDMC and two in the EDMC.
The bypolls were necessitated after nine councillors — who became legislators after the 2013 Assembly polls and four after the 2015 polls — resigned. Top Delhi BJP leaders oversaw the bypolls’ election campaign with a chunk of leaders working as election incharges of all the 13 wards. Also, BJP’s MPs campaigned in the wards of their respective constituencies to get the maximum share of votes. BJP MP Manoj Tiwari also campaigned in all the 13 wards. Moreover, taking on AAP on their corruption plank, Delhi BJP distributed pamphlets and posters all across the city ahead of the MCD bypolls for taking “no action being taken by the Delhi Government over Rs 400 crore DJB scam”. “We have distributed pamphlets demanding CBI enquiry into the DJB scam,” said BJP National Secretary RP Singh.
“The BJP has regained the confidence of the people of Delhi and in these civic by- elections we will get the largest vote share and our performance will be far better,” said Satish Upadhyay.
Trying to gain its lost ground, the Congress roped in its national leaders as well as celebrities to catch voters’ eyes. It deployed its senior national level leaders for campaigning, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Shakeel Ahamad, Raj Babbar and Delhi Congress President Ajay Maken campaigned in different wards.