Delhi MCD Elections 2022: Exit polls predict clean sweep for AAP with over 150 seats, set to end BJP's 15-year rule

Delhi MCD Exit Poll Results 2022 LIVE Updates: The Aam Aadmi Party is set to sweep the high-stakes Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections, which were held on December 4. According to two exit polls, the AAP will bag 151-160 seats out of the 250 wards while the BJP’s tally will be 80-89 seats. The Congress is once again set to face disappointment as both exit polls have predicted 5-8 seats for the Grand Old Party. 

India Today-Axis My India exit poll predicts 149-171 seats for AAP, 69-91 seats for BJP and 3-7 seats for Congress party. On the other hand, Times Now exit poll predicts 146-156 seats for AAP, 84-94 seats for BJP, and 6-10 seats for Congress.

While exit polls often go wrong, in case they turn out correct on the results day, this would come as a big setback for the BJP, which has been controlling the MCD for the past 15 years. Also, if the exit polls get it right, this would boost the AAP's national ambitions as it gets ready to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

The polling for the MCD polls was conducted on Monday in which over 50 per cent voter turnout was recorded. While the highest polling (65.74 per cent) was recorded in ward no. 5 (Bakhtawarpur), the lowest voting percentage (33.74 per cent) was recorded in ward no.145 (Andrews Ganj). 

Garbage collection and landfills emerged as one of the biggest issues in the fight between the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP, which has been controlling municipal bodies for 15 years. The BJP raised the issue of corruption and highlighted the arrest of AAP minister Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case and the alleged involvement of Deputy CM Manish Sisodia in the Delhi liquor policy scam. 

The polls are crucial for the AAP and its leader Arvind Kejriwal as they seek expansion of the party ahead of the 2024 general elections in the country.

A victory in the MCD polls will not only cement AAP's place in Delhi but will fuel its aspiration to emerge as a serious contender to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the national scene.

The BJP, which had deployed its top leaders, including national president J P Nadda, 19 Union ministers like Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal and chief ministers of six states in the campaign, is also seeking redemption through a morale-boosting victory. The party received a drubbing at the hands of AAP in the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls and won just eight of the 70 seats.

With a unified MCD led by a mayor of the party, the BJP can continue to challenge the AAP and Kejriwal in the national capital's politics. There were 272 wards in Delhi and three corporations- NDMC, SDMC, and EDMC in Delhi from 2012-2022 that later reunified into an MCD that had formally come into existence on May 22.