Call goes out in AAP and BJP camps: ‘Prepare for MCD polls’

Senior AAP leaders said it has asked its leaders in the corporation to be prepared if polls happen in December along with Gujarat elections. “We are a small party and have limited strength, so the BJP might try to conduct polls along with Gujarat so that our strength gets dispersed… so senior corporators have been told to start preparations,” said a former AAP councillor.

The Assembly elections for Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat is scheduled for November-December. “Further, the way in which the BJP is raising allegations one after the other, it could be an attempt to build a conducive atmosphere (for them) for polls,” he said.

The situation is the same at the BJP camp. Senior leaders in the Delhi BJP said though there is no official confirmation on the polls, they have started making preparations. A district president of the Delhi BJP said they’ve been told to start building campaigns till the booth level. “Of late, ticket aspirants are once again active — they have started meeting leaders, pasting banners and posters,” he said.

BJP president JP Nadda is also scheduled to interact with booth workers in mid-October, which, party leaders feel, is an attempt to infuse energy into cadre before polls.

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said, “We had said earlier that the MCD merger and delimitation is being done as the AAP has financially crippled the corporations. Once the exercise is over, naturally there will be polls.”

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The delimitation exercise was necessitated after the central government notified the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022, which proposed the merger of the three erstwhile corporations and a reduction in the number of councillor seats to “not more than 250 seats” from the existing 272.

On the reduction of wards, AAP’s former leader of opposition Vikas Goel said it is clear that decreasing 22 wards made no sense in terms of administration. “It was all to delay the polls. Now whenever they hold elections, we will win.”

A senior BJP leader too sounded a note of caution and said, “There are several gaps and reforms that are still pending in the MCD like the issue of timely salary to employees and improving finances. If elections are held now, then the purpose of unification with an intent for reform would be defeated as there are several initiatives that have to be planned to make the MCD self-sustainable.”