MCD polls now looming, AAP sees a Gujarat link, questions new wards; BJP gets down to work

The MCD election, originally scheduled for April this year, was put off hours before its schedule was to be announced in March as the BJP-led Central government wanted to unify the three MCDs. Subsequently, the Centre passed a bill in Parliament in this regard, capping the total number of MCD wards to 250 as against 272 earlier, which set the stage for the delimitation exercise.

With the first MCD delimitation draft being made public now, the BJP, which has been ruling MCDs for the last consecutive three terms, has begun its poll preparations by focusing on the party’s key strength — cadre building. The BJP has asked its councillors and mandal presidents to draw up a list of “paanch parmeshwar”, five party activists, from each booth.

According to BJP leader and ex-mayor Narendra Chawla, paanch parmeshwar in each booth will comprise of a booth president, a woman party activist and a youth worker, a booth palak (nurturer) and a booth-level functionary. The BJP’s 270 mandal presidents would submit this list from nearly 13,000 booths in Delhi. “The target is to form or update these team over the next few days,” he said.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said the party national president JP Nadda would address over 70,000 workers, including party activists from the state and district levels as well as booth workers, in mid-October as part of the party’s MCD poll preparations.

However, while the state BJP has started gearing up for the MCD polls, a party section believes that the time is still not conducive for the polls. A BJP leader said, “I don’t think the party will be eager to go for elections now as there are several gaps and reforms that are still pending in MCD, like the issue of timely salary to employees, improving the finances of the corporation,” adding that “If elections are held now, then the purpose of MCD unification for reforms would be defeated as there are several new initiatives that are being planned for MCD to make it self-sustainable.”

The ruling AAP seemed to believe earlier that the Centre would drag the Delhi municipal polls for a long time. The AAP camp had even gone to the court seeking timely MCD polls. But now that the MCD poll process appears to be on track, whose timing may coincide with that of the Gujarat Assembly polls due in December, the AAP seems to be recalibrating its strategies. “We are a small party, they (BJP dispensation) want to diffuse our strength, so this is being done,” said a former AAP councillor. The party has also complained about the delimitation draft, charging that the exercise has been carried out in ways that would boost the BJP’s prospects.

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday said the delimitation draft has “errors and discrepancies”. “I saw the report and prima facie found there are errors and discrepancies. We are studying the report and will also examine objections being raised by the public. After that, we will place the matter before the Election Commission soon,” he said.

Some senior AAP leaders charged that the MCD map has been redrawn to ensure bigger wards for those dotted with jhuggi clusters and smaller wards for those inhabited predominantly by middle class and upper middle class voters. “This has been done so that there are more wards carved out of the BJP strongholds,” said a senior AAP leader.

But there are signs that the AAP may not turn it into a major issue as the party senses an opportunity to mount a bid to clinch the MCD polls amid the perceived anti-incumbency against the BJP.

Playing to its strength, the AAP has been going after the BJP through various means and platforms including social media. The party has launched “Kooda Virodhi Abhiyan (anti-garbage campaign)” from Wednesday across Delhi to expose the incumbent party’s “garbage mismanagement” in the MCD areas. “During this campaign the MLAs will show the reality of landfills of Delhi and how the BJP-ruled MCD has failed to clear it,” said minister and senior AAP leader Gopal Rai.

“Many people in Delhi do not know what things are under the MCD and what is under the government. Through these campaigns we will tell people that it is actually BJP that is responsible for the sanitation mess in the city,” said a senior AAP leader.

AAP MLA Atishi visited the Ghazipur landfill on Wednesday. “BJP will be thrashed out of Delhi in the MCD elections in the same manner that people throw their trash out from their homes,” she said.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will eventually notify the final draft of the delimitation panel to pave the way for the MCD polls. The AAP camp believes that the BJP leadership might be looking at the MCD polls in December to coincide its timing with that of the Gujarat Assembly polls in a bid to “divide the AAP’s strength and energy”. The views in the saffron camp in this regard, however, seem to be divided, with one section saying that the move would check the AAP’s foray into the Gujarat polls while another dismissing any such need and maintaining that the AAP has still not emerged as a major player in Gujarat that could challenge the ruling BJP’s “overwhelming dominance” in the western state.

Delhi BJP general secretary Harsh Malhotra said, “The BJP is always in election mode as well as exposing mode. We have exposed the AAP over corruption in liquor policy, construction of classrooms and purchase of bus,” adding that “We have seen how they performed in Uttarakhand, UP and other states and worse will happen in Gujarat.”

The BJP is set to continue targeting the AAP over the Kejriwal government’s liquor policy. Malhotra charged, “The Kejriwal government has done corruption in liquor policy, classroom construction, and bus purchase. Only a government that is clean can clean the city.”