AAP's MCD win to redraw political equations in Delhi

AAP’s victory in the Delhi municipal polls is likely to further redraw the political landscape of the national capital as the BJP once again failed to blunt the Arvind Kejriwal-led party’s surge while the Congress almost took its last step into irrelevance in the city which it once ruled.

At present, Delhi is the only place where AAP is the direct challenger of the BJP and in the latest round of battle, the saffron party has surrendered its bastion – the Municipal Corporation of Delhi – which it ruled for 15 years after defeating the Congress in 2007.

The election results also showed that the BJP’s hopes were sabotaged though it believed that the merger of three corporations into one, a delimitation exercise and a sudden announcement of civic body election in the midst of Assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh could derail AAP’s juggernaut.

It sends alarm signals to the BJP, which now fears that it could have an impact on the next Lok Sabha elections in the national capital where it now boasts of winning all the seven seats. Though AAP had won the Assembly polls emphatically twice, it did not win a single Lok Sabha seat in 2014 and 2019 in Delhi while it won only 49 wards in 2017 civic polls.

Now winning the civic polls, AAP has increased its chances in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP can, however, find solace in the fact that they were not ruthlessly decimated like in the two Assembly polls while it will be a matter of discussion within AAP that it could not repeat the Assembly election performance.

For the BJP, an AAP defeat in the municipal polls would have enhanced its standing in the capital and could have emerged stronger in its challenge to the Kejriwal-led government, whose achievement the party showcases in its attempt to expand itself in other parts of the capital.

It also expected that AAP’s defeat could intensify its challenge to the Kejriwal-led dispensation with the aid of Lieutenant Governor. With the civic body now with AAP, the BJP may find it difficult to corner the AAP with it failing to establish its campaign against the Kejriwal model of governance.

The results also showed that the BJP’s high-voltage campaign in Delhi, like it did for Hyderabad civic polls, fielding top Union Ministers, Chief Ministers and other central and state leaders did not yield results.

Congress continued to lose elections in the national capital since 2014 Lok Sabha elections though the party leaders are pointing out an increase in vote share by 7-8 percentage points compared to Assembly polls when it got 4.3 per cent. AAP has lost some 10 per cent votes from 53.8 per cent in Assembly polls while BJP has marginally increased its vote share from 38.7 per cent.