Senior AAP leaders said the party would attack the ruling BJP on policy lines so that changes in candidates do not eliminate anti-incumbency. The revision of reserved seats by the state election commission (SEC) for the municipal corporation elections has made parties as well as candidates to re-think their strategy. The main challenge is for sitting councillors, many of whose seats are now in the category reserved for Scheduled Castes or women. This also includes the three sitting mayors.
The elections for 272 wards in the North, South and East civic bodies, currently ruled by the BJP, is scheduled for April.
According to the order issued on Tuesday, 15 of 104 wards in the South Corporation, 20 of 104 in the North and 11 of 64 wards in East have been reserved for Scheduled Castes, based on the 2011 Census. And, 50% of seats have been reserved for women.
While the number of reserved seats has not increased, most general seats have now been reserved for women and vice versa. Also, many seats that were earlier reserved for the Scheduled Castes are now in the general category.
Senior leaders in the BJP state unit said that the change of reservation status of most wards would help the party deny tickets to candidates without them being unhappy about it.
The AAP, however, believes that new faces will not help the BJP. AAP MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak said, “Our campaign had always been against the party and not individual candidates. So even if all the candidates are changed, it would not help the BJP.”
Senior AAP leaders said the party would attack the ruling BJP on policy lines so that changes in candidates do not eliminate anti-incumbency.
In the 2017 polls, the BJP had brought in fresh faces to all seats to work against anti-incumbency – it has been in power since 2011 – and had won 181 of 270 wards in all three civic bodies and managed to increase its vote share by around 5%. The party’s vote share was 32.2% in the 2015 Assembly election. The AAP had finished second spot, while the Congress was a distant third.
Soon after the reservation status of the wards was changed, some councillors were seen promoting their wives on social media. Said an AAP councillor, “If I have worked hard during the last five years and earned people’s trust, why will I not seek a ticket for my wife?”
A senior BJP leader said with most general category seats being reserved for women, the party would give preference to male candidates for other seats if he has a winnability factor.
Meanwhile, seats of key political leaders now fall under the reserved category. In the North Corporation, seats of former Mayor and state BJP president Adesh Gupta, current Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh and former Mayor Jai Prakash seats are in the reserved category. In the South Corporation, seats of current Mayor Mukesh Suryan and Mayor Narendra Chawla are now in the reserved category. In the East, seats of current mayor Shyam Sunder Agarwal, former mayor Bipin Bihari Singh have been reserved.
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The move will affect the opposition too. Seats of Leader of Opposition in the North Corporation, AAP’s Vikas Goel, South Corporation’s Leader of Opposition Prem Chauhan and East Corporation’s Leader of Opposition Manoj Tyagi have also been reserved.
Delhi BJP state general secretary Harsh Malhotra said the result of the MCD polls are decided by a margin of a few thousand votes and since the party has a pool of leaders in most constituencies, the change in reserved seats won’t affect it.
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