The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) yesterday won the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections, crossing the halfway mark with 131 seats, results declared by the State Election Commission (SEC) for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls show. With 250 wards in the MCD, a party needs 126 to win.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has gotten hold of 99 seats so far, has bucked the trend predicted by exit polls. No exit poll showed the party getting more than 91 seats. The Congress has managed to stake a claim over seven seats. Interestingly, three of these wards were won by the AAP in 2017 and one by the BJP. Independent candidate Shakeela Begum has won the Seelampur seat, while Meena Devi and Gajender Singh Daral have won the Isapur and Mundka seats, respectively.
This was the first election after the MCD was reunified earlier this year. The polls, which took place on December 4, saw a voter turnout of only 50.48% — just over 73 lakh people from the total of 1.45 crore eligible voters.
Data shared by the Delhi State Election Commission shows that upscale neighbourhoods of South Delhi saw the lowest voter turnout in the municipal polls. Rural pockets and parts of Northeast Delhi, where riots took place in 2020, saw the highest polling percentages.