All the parties feel the delay would boost their party’s opportunity to increase the number of seats when the polls happen.
New Delhi: The political parties in Delhi believe that the delay in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections would be beneficial to them as they would get more time to prepare for the elections. All the three contending parties—the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the BJP as well as the Congress—told The Sunday Guardian that the delay would boost the respective party’s opportunity to increase the number of seats in the local body elections.
The AAP, which was expecting to win in all the three corporations, had vehemently opposed the deferment of the polls, as earlier, the party’s internal survey had suggested it could win 230-240 wards out of 272 wards in the trifurcated MCDs in Delhi. However, interestingly, the party leaders now believe the move will straightaway benefit the party as the people will reject the saffron party more for subduing anti-incumbency.
Raj Kumar Anand, AAP MLA in Delhi, said, “AAP’s future is bright. People in the BJP are wishing to gain more seats by the move, but the more they delay it, the more overwhelming support we will get; the people understand what is happening. Now we expect to sweep the elections.”
The BJP which had ruled the MCDs for the last 17 years, on the other hand, believes that the deferment of the polls will help the party to become more active by amplifying its political activities in the state. Delhi unit’s BJP leaders, who were unaware of the imminent merger of the MCDs and were ready to go for polls, believe that the party will now get more time to work for the people to convince them and bring the saffron party back to power. Naveen Kumar, Delhi unit BJP spokesperson, said, “We have continued our work for the people, whenever the elections will be held, we are prepared.”
According to a political analyst, the delay could possibly help the BJP to assuage the anti-incumbency that the party is facing in the municipal corporations in Delhi due to its long tenure as they would now start working on delivering to the people.
Political observers from Delhi also say that the appointment of the Municipal Commissioner for the unified Municipality of Delhi for the next few years, till the time elections happen will give another opportunity to the BJP to correct the wrongdoings in the local bodies and prove to the people of Delhi that such a unified MCD would be beneficial to the national capital and that the new BJP would be able to run the MCDs with much more efficiency.
On the other hand, grand old party the Congress, which has been losing the MCD elections in Delhi for the last 20 years, also expects to benefit from the delay. The Congress leaders believe the “AAP wave” in the Assembly elections of Punjab would have created a ripple effect in the Delhi municipal polls reducing the Congress party in numbers and dwarfing its space in the corporation. Sunil Kumar, Delhi unit Congress spokesperson, said, “The plan to grow our membership on booth level has continued to show positive response and will further uptick to amplify the presence of the Congress at the ground level. We are further planning to increase our political activities in the coming days.”
The municipal elections in Delhi, which were expected to take place this month, have been deferred after the Parliament passed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (Amendment) Bill 2022 earlier this month, with the aim to unify the three municipal corporations of Delhi for better management of resources and effective citizen services delivery.
It is expected that the next municipal elections in Delhi are likely to take place in 2024 just before the General Elections as according to government sources, the Election Commission would require to redraw the boundaries of the municipal wards in Delhi.