Women candidates from BJP win six wards

Women candidates, all from the BJP, won six of the 12 wards in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) bypoll results announced on Wednesday, stamping their authority in the political scene in the national Capital.

The BJP, AAP and Congress fielded 19 women candidates in the MCD bypolls held on November 30. The highest number of eight were from the BJP, followed by six from AAP and five from the Congress.

There were 51 candidates in the fray for byelections to 12 wards of the MCD. While six of the eight BJP female candidates emerged victorious, none from AAP or the Congress could emerge victorious.

Anita Jain won the prestigious Shalimar Bagh B ward, defeating AAP’s Babita Rana by a margin of over 10,000 votes. The ward was vacated after sitting BJP councillor Rekha Gupta won the Assembly polls in February and became Delhi’s Chief Minister.

Dwarka B ward, which was earlier represented by BJP West Delhi MP Kamaljeet Sehrawat, was won for the party by Manisha Rani. Rani won by a comfortable margin of 9,100 votes against AAP’s Raj Bala.

Another prestigious ward, Greater Kailash, was won by BJP candidate Anjum Mandal. She defeated AAP’s 24-year-old Eeshna Gupta, the youngest candidate in the bypolls, by over 4,000 votes.

Veena Asija of the BJP won the Ashok Vihar ward in a close contest. She defeated AAP’s Seema Goyal by a margin of 405 votes. BJP candidate Rekha Rani defeated AAP’s Neetu in Dichaon Kala ward by 5,637 votes. Sarla Chaudhary won the Vinod Nagar ward by 1,769 votes, defeating AAP candidate Geeta Rawat.

Of the 12 wards where voting was held on November 30, nine were earlier held by the BJP and the remaining by AAP.

The lone male winner of the BJP was Suman Gupta, who won the prestigious Chandni Chowk ward, defeating the AAP candidate by over 1,100 votes. The BJP won seven wards and AAP three. The Congress and the All-India Forward Block (AIFB) won one seat each.