BJP hopes to retain power in MCD

Poll panel confirms 55 per cent voting in three municipalities

The Election Commission on Monday confirmed recording 55 per cent polling in the elections held for the three municipalities on Sunday. This thirteen per cent increase in the polling percentage, compared with 42 per cent in 2007, has made the BJP very hopeful of retaining power.

The BJP believes that its traditional supporters - the elite upper class, businessmen and trading community - does not go out and vote en bloc and any increase in the voting percentage is a sure sign of their increased participation in elections and thereby increased support for the BJP.

Before the elections took place, the BJP Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, V K Malhotra, appealed to the people to come out and vote in large numbers. Speaking to Deccan Herald then, Malhotra had  opined that the Congress support base – Muslims, scheduled castes etc - always voted in large numbers and hence, any increase in voting percentage would be to the BJP’s advantage. As a result of this increase, the BJP has been buoyant since the polling.

Reacting to the increased poll percentage, BJP Delhi Pradesh President Vijender Gupta said on Monday that the increased polling was expected as people were fed-up of the Congress-ruled Delhi government and they had vented their anger by voting for the BJP.
“Issues of corruption, price spiral were bound to take its toll on the Congress. This government has broken the back of Delhiites and they are not going to spare it. The 13 per cent increase in polling per centage is positive vote for BJP,” Gupta told Deccan Herald.

He pointed out the increased polling percentage of 53 per cent in South Delhi and said that the BJP was winning all the three municipalities. Less than 40 per cent polling was recorded here in 2007, with some areas recording as low as 30 per cent.  Interestingly, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief and MP J P Aggarwal considers the increased percentage to as his party’s advantage.

He rubbished the BJP claims and said that the BJP was ruling the MCD in Delhi and if there was any increase in polling, it had to go against the BJP and not against the Congress.
“These elections are for the civic bodies and not the Delhi government. Now, the BJP has been running the MCD for last five years and the people have come out in large numbers to vote, it can only mean one thing and that is anti-BJP voting,” said Agarwal.

Some of his partymen do not share Agarwal's optimism. They have given advantage to the BJP, citing reasons expressed by Malhotra and Gupta. “Nobody bothers about what the municipality does. What matters is the price of electricity, gas, water and vegetables. The Congress could pay the price for the price spiral,” said a Congress MLA.