The Aam Aadmi Party has won in only three out of ten wards which saw the highest voter turnout percentage. In fact, voters in three out of the 10 wards voted the AAP out of seats they had won in 2017, all of which are areas which were hit by the 2020 riots. While Delhi’s average voter turnout was 50% on polling day, there were ten wards which had a voter turnout above 60%. Most of these wards are either in rural pockets or in densely populated and relatively poorer Northeast Delhi. While AAP has the highest total vote share and took a majority of the wards in the municipal polls, it won in only three of these ten wards — Bhati and Kanjhawala, in which the BJP had won in 2017, and Nand Nagri, which the Congress had won in 2017. In three of these wards which had voted for AAP councillors in 2017, voters chose other parties this time — Congress won in Chauhan Banger, and the BJP won in Nehru Vihar and Kardampuri. All three of these Northeast Delhi wards had been affected by the 2020 Delhi riots. Apart from Chauhan Banger, the Congress has won in two other wards which saw the highest voter turnouts – it retained Mustafabad and won in Brijpuri, a new ward carved out by the delimitation exercise this year. Both of these areas had also been affected by the riots. The BJP retained its seat in Bakhtawarpur, a rural area ward which saw the highest voter turnout in Delhi with 65.72%, while independent candidate Shakeela Begum won in Seelampur — another riot-hit area in which she had won on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket in 2017. Meanwhile, all 10 wards which saw the lowest voter turnout are located in more affluent areas in South Delhi and Dwarka. The Aam Aadmi Party performed well in these and won in six out of 10. Of these six wards in which AAP won this time, the BJP had won in three in 2017 – Vasant Vihar, Munirka and Hauz Khas. In the ward with the lowest voter turnout in Delhi, Andrews Ganj with a 33.74% voter turnout, AAP won this time, taking it from Congress which had won in 2017. The BJP has won in four of these ten wards – Dwarka A, Sri Niwas Puri, Dwarka B and Greater Kailash — all of which they had also won in 2017.
