Politics

Delhi Civic By-Polls: AAP Wins 4 of 5 Seats; Loses Chauhan Bangar to Congress

BJP could not retain the Shalimar seat which fell vacant after its sitting councillor’s death.

Delhi Civic By-Polls: AAP Wins 4 of 5 Seats; Loses Chauhan Bangar to Congress

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates, after the party emerged victorious in four of the five civic wards in Delhi, March 3, 2021. Photo: PTI.

The Wire Staff
2 hours ago

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules all the three municipal corporations of Delhi, drew a blank in the by-elections to the civic bodies, results of which were declared today, March 3. Of the five seats that were contested, the Aam Aadmi Party bagged four while the Congress got one.

AAP leaders described the party’s performance as an indication of polls to three municipal corporations in the national capital in 2022.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s party secured victory in Kalyanpuri, Rohini-C, Trilokpuri and Shalimar Bagh; while Congress bagged the Chauhan Bangar ward. The AAP wrested the Shalimar Bagh ward from the BJP.

The seats held by AAP had fallen vacant after its sitting councillors were elected MLAs in the last Assembly elections. The fifth seat of Shalimar Bagh had fallen vacant following the death of the sitting BJP councillor Renu Jaju in 2019.

Having formed the government in Delhi after three consecutive elections in 2013, 2015 and 2020, AAP has been eagerly eyeing the civic bodies, which have almost 90% of Delhi’s geographical area under them and remain in charge of important functions like primary education, primary healthcare, sanitation and road maintenance.

AAP, however, suffered a shock defeat in the Muslim-dominated Chauhan Bangar ward, where Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad of the Congress defeated the party’s candidate Mohammad Ishraq Khan by a whopping margin of 10,642 votes.

The Chauhan Bangar ward covers areas like Jaffrabad, which witnessed large scale anti-Muslim violence in February 2020, during what is known as the northeast Delhi riots.

For BJP, the defeat in Shalimar Bagh is being seen as costly, as the civic by-polls were projected as a semi-final ahead of the civic polls due in 2022

“We honour the mandate given by people. Losing Shalimar Bagh North is a matter of introspection. The shortcomings will be removed, and I am sure BJP will win the elections for three municipal corporations in 2022,” said Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta.

According to the State Election Commission, AAP polled the highest 46.10% votes in the by-polls, followed by 27.29% by the BJP and 21.84% by the Congress.

“The people of Delhi have once again voted in the name of work. Congratulations to all. The people are fed up with misrule of the BJP at MCD for 15 years. People are desperate to bring the AAP to rule the MCD,” Kejriwal tweeted after the party’s victory.

What makes the results all the more important is that the AAP candidates won by comfortable margins in all the seats, considering every ward has an average of around 50,000 voters each. The election, held on Sunday, had witnessed around 50% voter turnout.

AAP candidate Dhirender Kumar won the Kalyanpuri ward by 7,043 votes. The party candidate Vijay Kumar from Trilokpuri defeated BJP’s Om Prakash by a margin of 4,986 votes. AAP’s Sunita Mishra defeated Surbhi Jaju of the BJP in Shalimar Bagh ward by 2,705 votes. The seat was earlier held by the BJP. Ram Chander of the AAP defeated BJP candidate Rakesh Goyal by 2,985 votes in Rohini C ward.

Sisodia in a tweet congratulated the party workers for the victory and said people were fed up with the BJP and would bring in Kejriwal’s politics of honesty and work, in MCD polls next year.

The AICC in-charge of Delhi Congress Shaktisinh Gohil said party candidate Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad’s record victory reflected the affection of people and hard work by Congress candidates.

Ahmad’s victory margin was the highest in the bypolls for the five wards.

(With PTI inputs)