All three parties are shortlisting candidates and designing strategy to connect with voters.
New Delhi: Political heat in the national capital is increasing as all the major political parties are gearing up for the Delhi Municipal Corporation elections scheduled in April 2022. The three main contenders, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC), have come up with catchy slogans and have started shortlisting their candidates for the election. Leaders from all the three main parties have confirmed to The Sunday Guardian that the candidate selection process is underway and the parties are zeroing on the social combination of the wards and the feedback from the local leaders and party units. It is said that all the three parties are receiving more than 20 applications per ward from the workers who are willing to fight the polls.
The preparation of the AAP is likely to further speed up after voting in Punjab as the party machinery is busy in the border state. The BJP state unit is holding meetings regularly for the MCD polls and the state core committee is shortlisting names for the respective wards. In all likelihood the BJP will repeat many of its councilors. Talking to The Sunday Guardian, BJP Delhi leader Santanu Gupta said, “We are winning the MCD elections. Our new slogan for the MCD polls, ‘Dilli bole fir ek baar MCD me Bhajpa sarkar’, is connecting with the masses. The AAP had lost all its credibility in the state due to mismanagement during Covid crisis and had failed in its promises done during the 2020 Assembly polls. People trust the leadership of Narendra Modi and the Delhi BJP had delivered in the MCD.”
While the Aam Aadmi Party’s whole strategy is revolving around Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the party leaders argue that the main issue in the Delhi corporation is corruption and AAP’s leader’s image is of someone who has not allowed corruption to flourish during his tenure in government of Delhi between 2015-till now. The party is in process to appoint ward in-charge for all the 272 municipal wards in the national capital to oversee the election management at the local level and coordinate with the district and state leadership.
Delhi Municipal Corporation is divided into three—North, South and East. Currently, all the three municipal bodies are ruled by the BJP. In 2017, the party won 47 out of 64 wards in the East Delhi municipal corporation, 70 out of 104 in the South Delhi municipal corporation and 64 out of 104 seats in the North Delhi municipal body. The AAP had won 48 seats and emerged as the main opposition party in the MCD politics. The Congress had won 30 seats.
Talking to The Sunday Guardian, political analyst Vikas Choudhary who had seen MCD politics closely said, “This election will be interesting as in 2017, the BJP built momentum by denying tickets to sitting councilors, this time the task will not be easy. The party is likely to repeat many of its sitting councilors, while the AAP is fresh after the 2020 Assembly victory and had taken lessons from that defeat. In the last election, the BJP had got 36% votes, while the AAP had 26% vote share. It would not be easy to fill that gap, but it all depends on which party generates momentum. The other contender, the Congress, has a difficult road ahead in the coming MCD polls as its organizational structure is very weak.”