The jubilant party leaders and workers declared it a victory of “good governance” of the AAP in Delhi and the defeat of BJP which has been ruling in all three civic agencies for the last 9 years. “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 (Now the AAP will win all seats in MCD polls),” party chief Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.
“BJP lost a gram panchayat election in a village adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress lost civic body polls in Rahul Gandhi’s constituency. So there is hardly any link between popularity of any leader or a party as issues are completely different in MCD polls,” said Dilip Pandey, AAP’s Delhi unit convener.
Terming the by-polls as a “launchpad” for the “mega final” next year, he said the results show that the AAP has the capability of restricting BJP to minimum numbers. “MCD by-polls were not a parameter to assess the popularity of the state government. The issues in the Corporations polls are different from the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. In local bodies’ polls, a lot depends on the local candidate and the person’s contact and proximity,” said Pandey.
As Congress increased its tally from zero to four, Delhi unit chief Ajay Maken said that the party’s traditional voters are returning to its fold in the city. “The traditional Congress voters including safai karamcharis, street vendors and slum dwellers have returned to the Congress fold. Besides the minority vote has also shifted to the Congress,” he said after results of the civic by-polls had the party winning four out of 13 wards with a 24.87 per cent vote share.
He said that the results clearly hint that both AAP and BJP must improve their governance. “The voters have taught AAP a lesson as health and education facilities in the Capital have not improved under their governance. The government has spent Rs 207 crore on publicity. Advertisements were given to vernacular dailies in Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi and other regional languages during the odd-even scheme. What have people of Karnataka or Kerala got to do with Delhi’s odd-even scheme or any other programme implemented by the Delhi government?” he asked.
The BJP, which had won seven out of the 13 wards in 2012 MCD elections was looking forward to regain its lost popularity but it received a setback with the election results. “Though we are a few seats short of our expectation but our voting percentage has gone up since 2015 Assembly
elections as a result of party’s hard work. Due to people distancing themselves from AAP, the party has lost in four of its wards vacated by its sitting MLAs,” said Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay.
The three seats BJP won in this byelection are – Nawada, Wazirpur and Shalimar Bagh North wards.
SEAT SHARE
AAP: 5
Cong:4
BJP:3
Independent:1