Losing councillors put up brave face

Councillors of both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, who lost the Assembly elections, put up a brave face on Wednesday and said they will return and work hard to revive people’s confidence in them.

Some said the Aam Aadmi Party will now eye the municipal corporation elections.
Leader of opposition in North Delhi Municipal Corporation Mukesh Goel said they are ready to work for the development of the city. “We will work hard to bring back the people’s confidence in us,” said Goel who has lost from Adarsh Nagar constituency.

Goel managed to get 15,341 votes. AAP candidate Pawan Kumar Sharma won the seat by securing 54,026 votes while BJP’s Ram Kishan Singhal scored 33,285 votes.

Asked about the MCD elections due in 2017, Goel said, “There are over two years for the corporations elections to take place. First, AAP will have to run the Delhi government successfully before getting into municipal corporations,” he added.

North Delhi Mayor Yogender Chandolia lost to AAP’s Vishesh Ravi with a huge margin of 32,880 votes. While Chandolia managed to get 34,549 votes, Ravi scored 67,429 votes. Congress candidate Mandan Khorwal bagged 9,144 votes.

“We lost due to the AAP wave,” said Chandolia. Asked if the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan backfired for the BJP, he said, “No, it’s not like that. The AAP played the bijli-pani card and it struck a chord with the masses.”

“The AAP will try to enter the municipal corporations. But we will make sure we will bounce back by working for the welfare of the people,” he added.

In 2012, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi was trifurcated into North Corporation, East Corporation and South Corporation. In all, there are 270 wards which will go to poll in 2017.