The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has won five seats in the municipal bypolls — results of which were declared on Tuesday — touted as the semi-final of the 2017 municipal polls. The Congress that was vanquished in the 2015 Assembly polls and that never won in these wards since 2007 as they were BJP’s stronghold bounced back by winning four seats.
The ruling BJP — at the helm for close to 10 years in the municipal bodies — won just three seats. However, the BJP received the highest vote share of 34.11 per cent. The Congress with four seats and the support of an independent candidate — who won in one ward — managed to level with the AAP on number of seats.
Of the seven wards of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), Matiala, Vikas Nagar, Nanakpura and Tehkhand were won by the AAP, while the BJP (Nawada), Congress (Munirka) and an independent (Bhati) won a ward each. The Congress swept the bypolls in East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) by winning both Khichripur and Jhilmil, while the BJP led the way in North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) by winning two of the four wards — Shalimar Bagh North and Wazirpur.
The Congress won from Qamaruddin Nagar, while the AAP registered victory in Ballimaran in the NMC. The BJP was the runner-up in the eight wards which were won by the AAP and the Congress.
Congress candidate Ashok Bhardwaj, who got 15,892 votes, won by the highest margin of 7,434 votes from Qamaruddin Nagar under NMC. The runner-up was BJP’s Anil Sinha, who polled 8,458 votes.
The lowest margin of victory was registered at Nanakpura ward of SDMC, where AAP’s Anil Malik defeated BJP’s Nitin Sharma by 522 votes. While Malik secured 6,566 votes, Sharma could manage 6,044 votes. Independent candidate Rajendra Singh Tanwar, who won from Bhati ward of SDMC, announced he was joining the Congress. He won by 3,152 votes. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2012 civic polls on the Congress ticket.
The AAP, which made a debut in the municipal bypolls, said its next target is to win all the seats in the civic body polls next year. “MCD ruled by BJP-Congress. Outsider AAP wins maximum seats in by election. Thnx Delhi for reaffirming faith. Ab MCD election mein sabhi seat jeetni hain(sic),” party chief Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.
Criticising Arvind Kejriwal’s one year rule, Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken questioned, “Is it a referendum of Arvind Kejriwal’s one year regimeIJ”
Maken said, “The people of Delhi have rejected Kejriwal. The results of bypolls are clear indication that people have realised that the Congress regime was better and Kejriwal had just befooled them.”
On the other hand, BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said after getting over 52 per cent votes in the Vidhan Sabha elections, the AAP has become arrogant and now the people of Delhi have rejected it as its vote share has been restricted to around 29 per cent.
The final tally of winners and their victory margins are: AAP — Mohammad Sadiq (2,066) Ballimaran, Ashok Kumar (1,084) Vikas Nagar, Ramesh (753) Matiala, Anil Malik (522) Nanakpura, and Abhishek Bidhuri (1,555) from Tekhand ward.
From, Congress, Ashok Bhardwaj won with 7,434 votes from Qamaruddin Nagar, Yogita Rathi (770) Munirka, Ananad Kumar (1,109) Khichripur, and Pankaj (3,419) Jhilmil ward. BJP’s Bhupinder Mohan Bhandari won by 1,451 votes from Shalimar Bagh (North), Krishan Gahlot by 4,843 votes from Nawada, and Dr Mahender Nagpal by 3,608 votes from Wazirpur ward. Nagpal and Gehlot — both the ex-MlAs of the BJP — won the ward election.
Former MlA and BJP candidate from Khichripur ward, Vinod Binny lost to Congress candidate Anand Kumar by margin of 1,109 votes while Jitendra Shunty lost to Congress candidate Pankaj luthra by margin of 2,419 votes from Jhilmil ward.
In terms of voting percentage BJP garnered the maximum 34.11 per cent votes despite winning only in three wards. The AAP obtained 29.93 per cent votes while the Congress got 24.87 per cent votes.
The 13 wards across the three civic bodies in Delhi fell vacant (seven in south DMC, four in North DMC and two in East DMC) after the corporators resigned to contest the Delhi assembly polls in 2013 and 2015.
A total of 95 candidates were in the fray in bypolls voting for which were polling were held on 694 stations. BJP, Congress and AAP had fielded candidates each for all the 13 wards.