MCD Polls: AAP has won, but it is vulnerable

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has won the elections to the Delhi Municipal Corporation (MCD) but it is a narrow victory with a slender margin. It has replaced the BJP, which has ruled the national capital’s civic body for the last 15 years. The BJP had ruled all the three corporations in Delhi. They were merged to form one civic body for which elections were held on Sunday. The AAP is in power in the national capital with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal going strong, and the party is trying to extend its influence to other states. The control of MCD will make its position stronger and reaffirm its claim to be the country’s rising political party. The MCD is important because it is the local body of the national capital and because it is a big corporation.

The BJP managed to keep its political base in Delhi and even improved its vote share but was not able to withstand the AAP assault. The party has lost as many as 75 seats, and it is a political and psychological defeat for it. It had made a no-holds-barred attack on the AAP with a big campaign that started months ago. The campaign included orchestrating corruption charges against AAP leaders, including Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, and using central agencies like the CBI and Enforcement Directorate to arrest some of them, such as minister Satyendra Jain.

It pressed central ministers and BJP Chief Ministers from other states into the campaign. But the AAP managed to overcome all that. It is mainly the Congress vote base that has shifted to it. The AAP made an impact because the issues that figure in a civic election are issues which it has always sworn by, like health, education, use of utilities like power, water and transport. The party also had its performance in these areas in the last many years to showcase to the voters.

But the victory is much less emphatic than its victory in the last Assembly election. The AAP faced issues from within, too, arising from charges about wrong distribution of tickets. There were also charges that tickets were sold. Arvind Kejriwal spent much of his time campaigning in Gujarat, and it was the second-rung leadership of the party that was in charge in Delhi. It will have a strong opposition to contend with in the MCD and governance will not be easy. It may even find it difficult to have its candidate elected as mayor. Most importantly, it should keep in mind that the BJP is not far behind it in terms of seats and there is no anti-defection law in operation here as the law does not apply to municipal councillors.