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When the results of the bypolls for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)’s 12 seats were declared Wednesday, every major contender read the mandate through its own lens.
While the ruling BJP insisted that its “triple-engine government” pitch still packs a punch, the principal Opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claimed that Delhiites have started gravitating towards the party after its drubbing in the Assembly elections earlier this year. Even the Congress sensed some signs of its revival.
The bypoll outcome was marked with dramatic highlights: razor-thin margins, an Old Delhi rebellion, duelling roadshows led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and ex-AAP CM Atishi, and three parties spinning the same numbers into three very different narratives.
The bypolls in 11 seats were necessitated by councillors quitting their posts after winning in the Delhi Assembly elections, while one ward was vacated after the sitting councillor was elected to the Lok Sabha last year.
The BJP bagged seven of the 12 wards, where voting took place on November 30, while the AAP won three. The Congress and the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) secured one seat each. Previously, nine of these wards were held by the BJP and three by the AAP.
As per the new composition of the 250-member MCD, the BJP now has 122 councillors, AAP 102, Congress nine, Indraprastha Vikas Party 16, AIFB one and an Independent.
Across the 12 wards, the election campaign was conducted along familiar lines for each party – the BJP ministers, MLAs and MPs made appearances and led roadshows to push their “triple-engine” plank, the AAP’s shrunken leadership leaned heavily on a volunteer-driven canvassing, and the Congress banked on its newly “revived” block-level units.
The BJP is projecting the outcome as an “endorsement” of its triple-layered rule – with the Centre, Delhi government, and the MCD under the party’s control. Pointing to a vote share of 46% across all 12 bypolls, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said the results reflected “the people’s choice”. He credited the win to CM Gupta’s grassroots campaigning from ward to ward till the end.
The BJP lost the Naraina ward, which was the closest contest among the bypolls, and scraped through in Ashok Vihar by just over 400 votes. The AAP has labelled the Ashok Vihar result “vote theft,” a charge the BJP dismissed as evidence of the former’s “desperation”. “A party that lost by 405 votes in Ashok Vihar and won Naraina by only 148 votes is questioning our victory – this shows their frustration,” Sachdeva said.
The AAP’s loss in two Muslim-majority wards, which it had previously held, has the BJP claiming that there was a “breach” in the party’s Old Delhi fort. “They (AAP) could not retain either Chandni Chowk or Chandni Mahal because they’ve lost their Muslim vote,” Sachdeva said, arguing that “internal fissures” hurt the AAP.
In Chandni Chowk, a ward long held by the AAP owing to the Sawhney family’s hold – vacated after former councillor Punardeep Singh Sawhney successfully contested the Assembly polls earlier this year from a seat once represented by his father Parlad Singh Sawhney – the seat has now flipped in the BJP’s favour.
In Chandni Mahal, the AAP’s problems began on day one when its veteran MLA Shoaib Iqbal resigned after the party refused to give an MCD bypoll ticket to his brother-in-law Mohammad Imran, who then contested on an AIFB ticket and won. The AAP said that it rejected Iqbal’s demand because it was against fielding “parachute candidates”. The party eventually finished third in a seat it once dominated.
In Greater Kailash, a prestige ward, the BJP is framing its win as a “personal setback” for Delhi AAP chief and ex-minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, who had lost the Assembly seat earlier this year by a narrow margin.
The AAP has, however, chosen to see the result as a “powerful boost for the party” in the wake of its crushing defeat in the Assembly elections at the hands of the BJP. The AAP secured a vote share of 34.97% in the 12 wards.
In a post on X, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who has been absent throughout the campaign, said, “In just 10 months, the public’s trust is rapidly returning towards the AAP… Delhi is returning towards positive politics and good works.”
The Congress celebrated its win in a lone seat as the beginning of an “organisational reset”. Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav called the result “a testimony to political transformation”, noting that the bypolls saw the party’s vote share jump from 6.18% to 13.44% in these 12 wards as compared to the 2022 MCD polls. He argued that the bypolls showed voters were “once again looking towards the Congress”, pointing to a 2-percentage point drop in the BJP’s vote share and an 8-percentage point decline for the AAP.
