The Delhi civic polls have given a reason to Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party to rejoice. On Wednesday, AAP surged ahead after the early rounds of counting, with BJP second close.
Early results declared by the State Election Commission (SEC) for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) show that AAP has clinched 106 seats, while BJP bags 84. Counting of votes is underway. Congress has managed to secure five seats, of which three seats previously belonged to AAP candidates.
The MCD has a sum total of 250 wards, thus making any party need 126 wards to secure a win. This has been the first election after reunification of MCD earlier this year. The votes are being counted at 42 centres across the Capital with a total of 1,349 candidates contesting.
Anti-incumbency ?
Interestingly, the Congress party managed to bag over four seats. Of which three seats were earlier won by AAP in 2017. Among the Independents contesting the election, candidate Shakeela Begum won the Seelampur seat. And in yet another step forward for LGBTQ rights, Bobi from Aam Aadmi Party (the only transgender candidate in the MCD fray) won the Sultanpuri seat.
Polling numbers and trends
The polling took place on December 4 and saw a discouraging number of voter turnout, with only 50.48% of people turning up to cast votes. Who's interested in and affected by civic polls might be two different things. The data shared by the Delhi State Election Commission also showed that posh areas in South Delhi saw the lowest turnout while rural pockets and some parts of Northeast Delhi, affected by riots in 2020, saw the highest percentage of polling. Last elections in 2017, BJP had secured for itself a total of 181 seats of the then 270 wards, and AAP had bagged 48 seats and Congress 30.
Celebrations
Even before the counting could be completed, AAP declared celebration with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann issuing a statement, "Arvind Kejriwal uprooted 15-year-long Congress rule in Delhi and now the 15-year-long BJP rule in MCD. It shows people of Delhi don't like politics of hatred, they vote for schools, hospitals, electricity, cleanliness and infrastructure."
The fact that anti-defection law does not apply to MCD elections means the elected counsellors can switch parties without any legal implications and fear of disqualifications, unlike in Assembly seats or Lok Sabha elections.
