In a setback for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress bagged one seat each in the two municipal wards elections in Delhi, the results of which were announced on Tuesday. Polling in these two wards was postponed due to the death of candidates there. While Maujpur went to polls on May 14, by-elections for the Sarai Pipal ward was held on May 21.
Mukesh Goel of the Congress won Sarai Pipal Thala ward of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) and AAP’s Reshma emerged victorious in Maujpur ward of East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).
Goel, who was the leader of Opposition in the NMC House, defeated BJP’s Mangat Ram Sharma by a margin of 2,743 votes.
The Congress leader polled 10,946 votes. Reshma of the AAP defeated Congress’ Rekha Sharma by a margin of 699 votes. Delhi has a total of 272 wards spread across North, South and East Delhi municipal corporations.
AICC in-charge of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, PC Chacko addressing mediapersons pointed out that its candidate Mukesh Goel from ward No 16-N won from the parliamentary constituency of Union Minister Harsh Vardhan in North East Delhi while Maujpur ward where the party candidate came second falls in the parliamentary constituency of Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari in East Delhi where the BJP lost from AAP.
However, Delhi BJP General Secretary Kuljeet Singh Chahal said that areas under both these wards Sarai Pipal Thala and Maujpur have been politically unfavorable for BJP and so the results should not be viewed as any reflection of people’s mood.
Voting for the rest 270 wards of the three municipal corporations was held on April 23 and the results were announced on April 26.
BJP managed a decisive mandate in the three corporations by securing 181 out of 270 wards in all three Municipal Corporations. This is the third consecutive term by the BJP in the Delhi MCD. On the other hand, the AAP managed to win only 48 seats while the Congress was reduced to a poor third with a tally of just 30.
The corporation-wise tally of the BJP was: SDMC (70), NMC (64) and EDMC (47) as against the AAP’s tally of 16, 21 and 11 respectively and the Congress’ 12, 15 and 3.
In Sarai Pipal Thala ward, Samajwadi Party candidate Dinesh Singh had died. His son Himanshu was in the fray.
Sarai Pipal ward was held by the BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party). The other main contenders in the election were Mohammad Sarif (BSP) and Rajeev Bansal (AAP).
In the Maujpur ward, the polling was postponed due to the death of Samajwadi Party candidate Naseema. Her daughter Shaheen was in the fray. The ward is currently held by the BJP. Other main contenders in the election include Suman Sharma (BJP), Rekha Sharma (Congress) and Reshma (AAP).
With results, the overall tally of the Congress and the AAP, both of which received a severe drubbing in the high-stakes MCD polls, has gone up to 31 and 49 respectively.