MCD election results 2017: Congress routed, Ajay Maken resigns as party’s Delhi chief

MCD election results 2017: The results are still coming in but the trends have stabilised and party looks set to lose all the three municipal corporations in the capital--South, East and North MCDs.

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MCD results 2017: Congress leader Ajay Maken on Wednesday tendered resignation for poor showing in the civic polls. (Praveen Khanna)

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken resigned from his position while taking responsibility for the party’s poor showing in the Delhi MCD elections. The results are still coming in but the trends have stabilised and party looks set to lose all the three municipal corporations in the capital–South, East and North MCDs. The results add to a line of defeats for the Congress that it has suffered in the past three years. Even a specific study of the capital shows massive loss of faith for the party.

Maken was entrusted with the party’s charge after Sheila Dikshit was defeated by AAP in 2014. His main task was reorganisation of the state unit and grooming leaders with a clean image. However, he failed in proving his mettle in the 2015 state Assembly polls. This seemed to be the last chance for the former Union Minister and it seems the party would now look at bringing in new leadership at the helm of its Delhi unit.

Congress has dropped to the third place and hasn’t shown strength in even 50 wards. The party stares at an overwhelming defeat. The hierarchical restructuring has begun. It remains to be seen whether the party brings the proven Sheila Dikshit team back to revive its fortunes in the Capital.

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Congress lost the capital during the 2014 polls to the Lok Sabha and the Delhi Assembly. It also lost its one chance for redemption in 2015 when the AAP returned with a massive mandate. The party has been without a strong agenda to hold its fort. As a result, leaders like Barkha Shukla and Arvinder Lovely defected to the BJP recently. The party was unable to exploit the anti-incumbency wave to any measure, despite the fact that good showings in Assembly elections could have been marketed to Delhi’s electorate.

The BJP won 144 wards out of 272 in the 2007 elections to an undivided MCD. Congress had won 59 seats. After the trifurcation of the body in 2012, the BJP won 138 wards in the year with Congress winning a respectable 78 wards.

Elections were held in 272 wards. The North and South MCDs have 104 wards each and the East corporation has 64.

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