3 AAP councillors join BJP, boost its chances in mayoral poll

New Delhi: Three AAP councilors switched over to the BJP on Saturday, boosting its chances of victory in the upcoming MCD mayoral poll.

Welcoming the councilors, city BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said Delhi will have a "triple engine" government -- at the Centre, assembly and municipal level -- at the right time to develop it as the capital of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision under a 'Viksit Bharat".

The three councilors are Anita Basoya (Andrews Ganj), Nikhil Chaprana (Hari Nagar) and Dharamvir (R K Puram).

Sachdeva said the councilors joined the BJP to make Delhi a clean and beautiful city.

In the wake of its recent resounding victory in the Assembly polls, the BJP is eyeing a "triple-engine government" in Delhi by securing the post of mayor. The BJP won 48 of the 70 Assembly seats, ousting the AAP from power after a decade.

The mayoral election is scheduled to be held in April. The AAP had won the last mayoral election, held in November 2024, by three votes.

Besides the councilors, the seven Lok Sabha MPs (all of BJP), three Rajya Sabha MPs (all of AAP) and 14 nominated MLAs in Delhi are voters in the polls for mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

With the joining of the three councilors, the BJP tally is now higher than that of the AAP.

The BJP is also going to have 10 of its MLAs nominated to the MCD, while the AAP will have four nominations for the civic body, said BJP leaders.

In the February 5 Assembly polls, eight BJP councilors and three AAP councillors got elected to the assembly.

In the 2022 MCD polls, the AAP had won 134 wards, the BJP 104, the Congress nine and Independents three.