MCD bypolls: BJP, AAP, Cong spin outcome into stories of their own success

The AAP argued that Delhiites were already missing the party they had voted out of power in the Assembly in February.

And the Congress, in victory at one civic ward, detected a pulse in its moribund organisation in the capital.

Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said the results — seven wards and a 46% vote share for his party — demonstrated “the people’s choice”. He credited the win to Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s intensive grassroots campaign, which saw her travelling across wards until the end.

And yet, the BJP lost Naraina in the closest contest of the byelections, and scraped through in Ashok Vihar by barely 400 votes. The AAP described the Ashok Vihar result as “vote theft”, an allegation the BJP said was evidence of the opposition’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.

He claimed that the AAP’s failure to retain two Muslim-majority wards indicated a breach in the bastion of Old Delhi. “They could not retain either Chandni Chowk or Chandni Mahal because they’ve lost their Muslim vote,” Sachdeva said.

Chandni Chowk ward fell vacant after AAP councillor Punardeep Singh Sawhney succeeded his father Parlad Singh Sawhney to the Chandni Chowk seat in the Delhi Assembly; it flipped to the BJP’s Suman Kumar Gupta on Wednesday.

In Chandni Mahal, Mohammed Imran, the brother-in-law of veteran AAP MLA Shoaib Iqbal, won on an All India Forward Bloc ticket after the AAP denied him a nomination — a decision that led to Shoaib Iqbal walking out of the party. The AAP finished third in the seat.

The AAP lost the prestigious Greater Kailash ward as well, and the BJP framed its victory as the personal defeat for AAP Delhi president and former minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, who narrowly lost the Greater Kailash Assembly seat in the February election.

The AAP, however, said that by holding on to its tally of three in these 12 wards was a “powerful boost”. Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, who did not participate in the campaign, posted on X, “In just 10 months, the public’s trust is rapidly returning towards the Aam Aadmi Party… Delhi is returning towards positive politics and good works.”

The Congress, meanwhile, celebrated its lone victory as the beginning of an organisational reset. Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav said the election result at Sangam Vihar A ward, where the party more than doubled its vote share from 6.18% to 13.44%, was “a testimony to political transformation” in which “voters were once again looking towards Congress”.