BJP wins high-stakes MCD bypolls, bags 7 of 12 wards

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won seven out of the 12 wards, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) secured three and the Congress and the Left opened their account with one seat each in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) bypolls, the results of which were declared today.

The bypolls, held on November 30 after 11 councillors were elected to the Delhi Assembly and one to the Lok Sabha, witnessed a voter turnout of 38.51 per cent, much lower than the 50.47 per cent recorded in the 2022 MCD elections for 250 wards.

Though the BJP held nine of the 12 wards before the bypolls, the party failed to hold on to all of them, losing Sangam Vihar and Naraina, both located in Assembly constituencies represented by BJP MLAs. However, the AAP managed to retain all three seats.

BJP candidate Anita Jain won Shalimar Bagh B ward, which was previously represented by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. BJP’s Manish Devi won the Dwarka B ward; Suman Kumar Gupta won Chandni Chowk; Veena Asija won Ashok Vihar; Rekha Rani won Dichaon Kalan; Anjum Mandal won Greater Kailash; and Sarla Chaudhary won Vinod Nagar ward.

AAP’s Anil won the Mundka ward, Rajan Arora won Naraina seat and Ram Swaroop Kanojia won Dakshinpuri, while Suresh Choudhary from the Congress won the Sangam Vihar ward and Mohd Imran from Left Forward Bloc won the Chandni Mahal seat.

Several seats, especially Naraina and Ashok Vihar, witnessed tight contest. In Naraina, AAP’s Rajan Arora flipped the seat from the BJP by a wafer-thin margin of 148 votes, defeating the party that had previously won here by 3,740 votes in 2022. In Ashok Vihar, fortunes reversed as BJP’s Veena Asija defeated AAP’s Seema Goyal by 405 votes.

The AAP later claimed it had been leading after 10 rounds of counting and the result changed following a recount. However, the BJP termed the allegation baseless.

The Chandni Mahal ward delivered the biggest surprise of the day, where All-India Forward Bloc’s Mohammad Imran won by 4,692 votes with the support of former AAP MLA Shoaib Iqbal, who had parted ways with the party after his preferred candidate was not given a ticket. The defeat was particularly significant because AAP had earlier won the ward with a margin of over 17,100 votes in 2022.

Chandni Chowk, another major ward earlier held by AAP, also slipped away as BJP’s Suman Kumar Gupta defeated AAP’s Harsh Sharma by 1,182 votes. AAP managed to make gains elsewhere when Anil from the BJP won the Mundka ward with 1,577 votes. The party also retained Dakshinpuri seat.

The Congress marked its presence by winning one seat in the bypoll, while the Left also opened its account with one win.

With the updated tally after the bypolls, the 250-member Municipal Corporation of Delhi now consists of 122 seats with the BJP, 102 with AAP, nine with the Congress, 16 with the Indraprastha Vikas Party and one with the All-India Forward Bloc.

While the bypoll results do not dramatically alter the majority in the corporation, these are being viewed as a crucial indicator of public sentiment at the grassroots, where civic services are most visible and accountability is direct.