DNA Exclusive: How did Kejriwal's AAP defeat BJP in high-stakes MCD polls?

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party won the MCD elections with 134 seats and dislodged the BJP which had been in power for 15 years. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party won the Delhi civic polls by promising a corruption-free MCD and a cleaner and greener Delhi. The BJP still won 104 seats but the Congress only won 9 seats. 

In today’s DNA, Zee News’ Aditi Tyagi will analyze how the AAP dislodged the BJP in Delhi civic polls for the first time in 15 years. 

#DNA: MCD में बीजेपी की उम्मीदों पर 'झाड़ू' फिर गई, देखिए संसदीय क्षेत्र में बीजेपी का प्रदर्शन कैसा रहा ?#MCDElection2022 #MCDResults @aditi_tyagi pic.twitter.com/JLj3aD3D4c — Zee News (@ZeeNews) December 7, 2022

 

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia bashed the BJP for mishandling the landfills and raised the issue of cleanliness. Since the BJP was in power for the past 15 years, the people of Delhi were tired of not seeing significant improvement regarding corruption and cleanliness. 

Another possible reason for BJP’s defeat is their lack of MLAs as compared to MPs. This matters as MLAs are more connected to the general public in comparison with MPs.

Another clear reason for AAP’s win is that it swept Congress’ vote bank as well. The Congress failed to campaign in Delhi for the MCD polls and in turn, gave away its vote bank to AAP.

Even though the BJP lost the MCD polls to the AAP in a close contest, it managed to raise its vote share by 3 percent as compared to the 2017 civic body elections in the national capital.

The vote share of the ruling party in Delhi also soared from 21.09 percent in 2017 municipal polls to 42.05 percent, as per figures from the State Election Commission.

The BJP which had won 181 of the 272 wards in 2017 managed to win only 104 wards this time surrendering its 15-year rule at the civic body to Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP.