A year after suffering a humiliating defeat in the Delhi Assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party has been wiped out in the by-polls for the five Municipal Corporation wards in Delhi. While the ruling Aam Aadmi Party walked away with four wards, the fifth one was bagged by Congress. The saffron party, which otherwise controls the MCD, could not even open its account. The results of the by-polls were announced on March 3.
In last year’s Assembly election, the AAP won 62 seats while the BJP eight. The Congress then drew blank.
Speaking to his supporters after the victory Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal congratulated the workers and thanked the voters for reposing faith on the AAP candidates.
He said that the four victorious councillors of his party would work for the people and hoped that the AAP would win the next year’s MCD poll. Kejriwal further said that his government had done very good work in the field of education, electricity, road construction and water supply. Only it is in the field of cleanliness that Delhi is lagging behind and that would be possible only after controlling the MCD.
Though performance in the by-election for five wards for Delhi cannot be any yardstick to judge the general mood of the common masses it at least gave a little idea about the people’s thinking. That the BJP which holds the MCD could not win a single ward, while the Congress did manage to win one is a pointer to the fact that people’s disenchantment towards the saffron party is increasing. The Congress could see a ray of hope in the result.
