NEW DELHI: Celebrations are in full swing at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) office here on Wednesday with supporters carrying party flags distributing sweets and dancing to the beat of drums.
The AAP crossed the halfway mark gaining a majority in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, thus uprooting the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) 15-year-long rule in the city’s civic body.
Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia thanked the people of Delhi for voting his party to victory in the MCD polls and said it was their mandate that helped it defeat the “world’s biggest and most negative party”.
Addressing the people around 3 pm, AAP’s national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “I congratulate the people of Delhi for this win and thank them for bringing change.”
As of 2 pm, the AAP has won 130 wards out of 250 so far.
The BJP, which has been ruling the civic body since 2007, managed to win 99 seats with the party leading on 6 seats till 2 pm.
The Congress was lagging far behind, winning just seven seats.
Three Independent candidates, including Shakeela Begum from Seelampur in northeast Delhi, have also won.
In a fiercely fought battle, the BJP began the day by leading in the initial trends for nearly one and a half hour initially, however, the trends started shifting as the AAP gained the lead and maintained thereafter until the final results were declared.
“The BJP has got the answer today that the people of Delhi vote for those who work, and not for the ones who defame. The BJP fielded its MPs, Ministers, CBI and ED, but the people of Delhi still voted for the AAP. The people have given a befitting reply to the BJP for the allegations that it levelled against Kejriwal. We will make Delhi the most beautiful city in the world,” AAP leader Raghav Chadha said earlier.
Polling took place on December 4 with about 50 per cent voter turnout.
This was the first civic election after the fresh delimitation exercise.
There were 272 wards in Delhi and three corporations – NDMC, SDMC, and EDMC in Delhi from 2012-2022 that later reunified into an MCD that had formally come into existence on May 22.
