Delhi MCD polls: Subdued turnout, missing names as both AAP, BJP claim victory

The turnout was lesser than the last civic polls and the public seemed a bit more apathetic and leaders a bit more upset. The previous civic body polls in 2017 had recorded 53 percent voting.

New Delhi: Around 50 percent voting was recorded on Sunday in the election to the 250 municipal wards in Delhi, with main rivals BJP and AAP claiming victory in the high-stakes contest. Garbage collection and landfills emerged as one of the biggest issues in the fight between the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP, which has been controlling municipal bodies for 15 years.

The turnout was lesser than the last civic polls and the public seemed a bit more apathetic and leaders a bit more upset. The previous civic body polls in 2017 had recorded 53 percent voting.

While the morning trend was weak, the voting was expected to gain momentum in the latter part of the day, but it did not happen. Apart from the claims of politicians, if one looks at the trends of voters and the opinion of analysts, one thing clearly shows that while people are upset with the BJP due to its performance in the corporation, they do not have high hopes from AAP as well.

That said the elections to the 250 wards are largely viewed by political commentators as a two-way contest between the BJP and the AAP with the Congress party gradually losing its foothold in the city.

However, Congress has some advantages to becoming the distant second since people want to teach a lesson to both BJP and AAP. Nonetheless, the polls are crucial for the AAP and its leader Arvind Kejriwal as they seek expansion of the party ahead of 2024 general elections in the country.

A victory in the MCD polls will not only cement AAP's place in Delhi but will fuel its aspiration to emerge as a serious contender to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the national scene. The BJP, which had deployed its top leaders, including national president JP Nadda, 19 Union ministers like Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal and chief ministers of six states in the campaign, is also seeking redemption through a morale-boosting victory.

The party received a drubbing at the hands of AAP in the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls and won just eight of the 70 seats. With a unified MCD led by a mayor of the party, the BJP can continue to challenge the AAP and Kejriwal in the national capital's politics. There were 1,349 candidates in the fray and over 1.45 crore electors were eligible to exercise their franchise.

Meanwhile, several voters were disappointed after their names were missing from the voters' list. "I came here to cast my vote for the first time. I found that my name is not mentioned in the list. Officials don't have a clue. I am standing for the past few hours but nobody is helping me, 19-year-old Puneet Kumar said.

Anil Kumar, the Delhi Congress president, also did not find his name on the list. "My name is neither on the voters' list nor on the deleted list. My wife has voted," Kumar said at a polling booth in Dallupura in East Delhi. Polling booths in Bawana's Katewara village were all empty as the residents in the area boycotted elections alleging negligence from the civic body.

One of the residents of Katewara village Krishna Vats claimed that the residents unanimously decided to boycott the elections at the polling booths in Nangal Thakran ward. "The civic body as well as the Delhi government always neglected people here, so why should we cast our votes? Main roads are broken, drains are clogged and MCD schools are in pathetic conditions here," Vats said.

Sanitation, maintenance of parks and lack of parking facilities were the issues of concern for women who came out to vote. Dr Rehana Parveen, a general physician who arrived at a pink booth on DDU Marg here to cast her vote, flagged the issue of garbage collection from colonies.

Among the early voters was 106-year-old Shanti Bala Vaidya at the Deputy Ganj polling station in the Bara Hindu Rao area. "She has not missed an election since she started voting," said her daughter Kamla. Vaidya (106) only understands Bengali but cannot talk.

Sixty drones were used especially to maintain law and order in critical or sensitive booths of the national capital. Meanwhile, the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party accused each other of violating the model code of conduct during voting. Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor alleged that recorded messages of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appealing to people to vote for the AAP were received by lakhs of people on the day of polling. No immediate reaction was available from the Aam Aadmi Party.

AAP MLA Dilip Pandey told reporters that people are going to punish the BJP for its 15 years of misrule of the civic bodies. and Tiwari should "stop crying foul". The erstwhile MCD, established in 1958, was trifurcated in 2012 during Sheila Dikshit's tenure as chief minister.

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta asserted that the BJP is returning to power with a clear majority in the MCD for the fourth time in a row. "People have voted against the scams and false publicity of the Kejriwal government," Gupta said.

Between 2012 and 2022, Delhi had 272 wards and three corporations -- North Delhi, South Delhi and East Delhi municipal corporations. These three civic bodies were reunified into the Municipal Corporation of Delhi which came into existence on May 22.

In the 2017 civic election, the BJP won 181 of the 270 wards. Polling could not be held on two seats due to the death of candidates. The AAP had won 48 wards and the Congress 27. The voting percentage that year was around 53 per cent.