MCD Election Results 2022: AAP surges ahead of BJP, on course to end its 15-year rule; another poll debacle for Congress

Pulling ahead in a tightly fought contest, the Aam Aadmi Party looks on course to end the BJP’s 15-year rule at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi with the latest trends showing that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party has crossed the magic figure of 126, leading the BJP by over 25 seats. 

Till 12:30 pm, a total of 90 per cent votes had been counted, in which the AAP bagged 92 seats and BJP bagged 73 seats. The Congress faced another embarrassment as it managed to garner just four seats. 

The MCD has 250 wards, and the simple majority mark is 126. The BJP initially managed to take a substantial lead, with both the parties later involving in a see-saw contest, hovering around the halfway mark. However, the AAP later widened the lead to cross the majority mark of 126.  

This was the first election after the MCD was reunified earlier this year. In 2017, the BJP had clinched 181 of the then 270 municipal wards while AAP had won only 48 and the Congress finished third with 30. 

Congress' Shagufta Chaudhary won in Chauhan Banger, while AAP's transgender candidate Bobi won from Sultanpuri-A defeating her Congress' Varuna Dhaka by over 6,700 votes. Sultana Abad of the AAP won the Jama Masjid ward, while party candidate Sarika Chaudhary defeated Congress' Farhad Suri by a margin of 244 votes in Daryaganj. BJP's Alka Raghav emerged victorious in Laxmi Nagar by a margin of 3,819 votes. The party's Rohini D candidate Smita also registered a win.

Even as the trends wernt in favour of the AAP, the Delhi BJP claimed that it will emerge victorious and win for a fourth straight term at the powerful civic body. "People of Delhi will take revenge for the manner in which Delhi CM indulged in corruption and betrayed them. I trust people of Delhi. We raised issues, exposed AAP's corruption and revealed their failures. We're going to come to power in MCD, for the fourth time," said party's Delhi chief Adesh Gupta. 

The close contest has party workers and supporters on the edge, who even as they prepared for celebration, were also likely to have been bracing themselves mentally for an adverse outcome. The entire premises of BJP office which is under tight security arrangements is decked up in colours of Bharatiya Janata Party's colours -- Orange and Green.

For AAP, a clear victory in the MCD elections will be yet another example of its sway over Delhi and will also serve as a consolation since the exit polls have also predicted that the party's hopes of victory in the Gujarat assembly polls are likely to fail this time. It will further boost Arvind Kejriwal's national ambitions for his party as he tends to taken on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

For the BJP, a foreseen defeat at the MCD comes as a major setback for its prospects in the national capital, keeping in mind the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 and the Delhi Assembly polls in 2025. It further rings alarm bells as the AAP aims to replace the Congress as the main opposition party.