BJP beats AAP in MCD ward poll to dominate civic agency

New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday defeated the AAP in the MCD zonal ward polls, sealing its dominance in the highest decision making body of the civic agency -- the standing committee. The BJP bagged the posts of chairman, deputy chairman of the zonal-level ward committees, and one member each for standing committee in seven of 12 zones, restricting AAP to five zones in the keenly contested poll.

Voting in three zones -- Karol Bagh, City SP, and Keshav Puram -- was not held as neither the BJP nor the AAP fielded their candidates. BJP bagged Narela, Civil Lines, Keshav Puram, Shahdara North, Najafgarh, Shahdara South, and Central Zones, while AAP won Karol Bagh, West, South, City SP and and Rohini zones. Pawan Shehrawat and Sugandha, the councillors who recently switched sides from the AAP to BJP, won the post of chairman for the ward committees from Narela and Central Zones respectively.

The Civil Lines Zone saw a keen contest between the AAP and BJP with the saffron party winning all three posts by a margin of one vote each. Anil Kumar Tyagi defeated Ajeet Singh Yadav by polling 10 votes, while Rekha triumphed over her rival Gagan Chaudhary in a similar fashion. Former North Delhi mayor and BJP leader of opposition in MCD Raja Iqbal Singh defeated Promila Gupta of AAP by polling 10 votes as against nine by her.

In the Karol Bagh Zone, AAP councillor Rakesh Joshi was elected unopposed as chairman of the ward committee, while Jyoti Gautam and Ankush Narang bagged the posts of deputy chairman and member of the standing committee in absence of any BJP candidate. AAP candidates Mohd Sadiq, Kiran Bala, and Punardeep Singh Sawhney were elected unopposed as chairman, deputy chairman of the ward committee, and member of the standing committee from City SP Zone in the absence of any candidates from the BJP. BJP candidates were elected unopposed from the Keshav Puram Zone. In South Zone, cross voting led to a tie between the BJP and AAP. Through lottery, AAP won the zonal chairman post.

The party’s candidates also won the posts of chairman and standing committee member. In Rohini, AAP’s Suman Anil Rana won the president’s post by defeating her BJP rival. Dharam Rakshak and Daulat bagged the posts of deputy chairman and standing committee member after the BJP candidates withdrew nominations for the two posts. In the West Zone, the BJP candidates withdrew their nominations for the three posts. The Shahdara North zone saw BJP candidates emerging victorious after defeating their Congress rivals. The voting for the ward committee polls in the zone went on for the longest time. The Congress, which has nine councillors, had fielded candidates from the Shahdara North zone.

The AAP candidates withdrew their nomination for the post of chairman and deputy chairman, while Congress candidate withdrew her nomination from the standing committee member. Former East Delhi mayor Neema Bhagat was elected as a standing committee member from Shahdara South Zone. The elections were carried out smoothly under a heavy security deployment. The voting was held in two clusters of all MCD zones, held simultaneously with councillors of five zones casting their votes together, while the remaining zones will go to polls separately. The long pending elections were held for the first time since the unification of the trifurcated MCD in 2022. Due to a political deadlock between the ruling AAP and the opposition BJP, the polls could not take place and the matter became sub judice. The elections are being held through secret ballot in accordance with the Delhi Municipal Corporation Regulations, 1958. Police had beefed up security arrangements in and around the Civic Centre located in central Delhi ahead of the polls. A company of paramilitary personnel along with local police has been deployed at the spot