MCD election results 2017: BJP’s thumping win sets stage for 2020 Assembly battle with AAP

MCD results 2017: Today, the BJP continued that winning streak and has effectively strengthened its grip on all three municipal corporations in the national capital.

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MCD election results 2017: After BJP’s landslide victory, Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said, “We dedicate this win to CRPF jawans of Sukma encounter.” (Source: PTI photo)

Two weeks ago, a BJP leader and ex-councillor in old Delhi told this author that before the election results in Goa and Punjab spelled doom for the Aam Aadmi Party, the saffron party expected tough competition in the MCD. “Now, it’s all very clear. They will be wiped out,” he told me then. It was difficult to believe him considering the AAP’s dominance in Delhi in terms of its enthusiastic cadre, its MLAs and the popular work it had carried out in the sectors of education and health. But perceptions matter.

It seems almost as if the AAP’s defeats in Punjab and Goa and the BJP’s landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh have had a ripple effect on the voters of neighbouring Delhi. Today, the BJP continued that winning streak and has effectively strengthened its grip on all three municipal corporations in the national capital. As per the trends at 12 noon, the BJP was winning in more than 180 seats leaving far behind the AAP in 48 seats and the Congress in 28 seats.

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The exit polls that projected a near-rout for the AAP and the Congress may have been proven wrong but the BJP’s leads in north, south and east civic bodies are uniform and unlike the results of 2012 when it had to seek the support of a few Independents to get a majority. The BJP’s resounding win in the east civic body is particularly noteworthy as the region had fell in one single swoop into the clutches of the Aam Aadmi Party in 2015. This time, the BJP candidates have tasted victory even in wards falling under Patparganj, the constituency represented by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. The saffron party has also been successful in retaining wards like Krishna Nagar, where its leader Kiren Bedi was defeated in 2015 by a little-known AAP leader.

In the south civic body, the BJP has vastly improved its tally from the 44 seats it had won in 2012. This time, the party could end up with wins in more than 60 wards. In the 2015 Assembly elections, the BJP was not able to win a single seat in south Delhi so its MCD tally will be a shot in the arm for the party. In terms of demographics too, the party seems to have gained immensely among Purvanchali voters, a big chunk of Delhi’s electorate. With the appointment of Manoj Tiwari, a Delhi MP as well as a popular Bhojpuri actor-cum-singer, as its Delhi chief, the BJP had set its sights on the numerically strong Purvanchali community.

READ: MCD election results 2017: Congress routed, Ajay Maken resigns as Delhi Congress chief

With this victory, the BJP would take pleasure in proving to weaken the AAP in its backyard and set the stage for what would be a fierce 2020 Assembly battle. News anchors and political analysts have already predicted it would be a clash of personalities between the BJP under Tiwari and the AAP under Arvind Kejriwal. While Tiwari, on one channel, brushed off the personality battle, he expressed confidence that Delhi’s next chief minister will be from the BJP. That essentially will be the party’s pinnacle point considering it has not been able to snatch power in Delhi for the last two decades.

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