New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged victorious in four seats and the Congress in one Delhi municipal ward that went to bypolls on 28 February.
The votes were counted Wednesday morning.
Byelections were held in five municipal wards across the national capital on 28 February.
The four seats won by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s party include Kalyanpuri, Trilokpuri, Shalimar Bagh and Rohini C, while the Congress bagged a landslide victory in Chauhan Banger, a Muslim-nominated area in northeast Delhi.
The counting had began at 8.30 am.
After trends became clear, elated AAP workers celebrated with chants like “Ho Gaya kaam, Jai Shri Ram”.
Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia took to Twitter to congratulate the party.
https://twitter.com/DeganaPrakash/status/1366997971129180160?s=20
एमसीडी उपचुनाव में 5 में से 4 सीटें जीतने पर आम आदमी पार्टी कार्यकर्ताओं को बधाई.
बीजेपी के शासन से दिल्ली की जनता अब दुखी हो चुकी है. अगले साल होने वाले MCD चुनाव में जनता @ArvindKejriwal जी की ईमानदार और काम करने वाली राजनीति को लेकर आएगी
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) March 3, 2021
More than 50 per cent votes were cast in the bypolls, and the highest voting percentage was recorded in Kalyanpuri. Out of the five wards, four were held by AAP while Shalimar Bagh North had a BJP councillor.
The byelections are being watched closely with the MCD elections due in 2022. The BJP has ruled in all three municipal corporations of Delhi for nearly 15 years now. Congress was pushed to a distant third in 2017.
Kejriwal, senior leaders like Manish Sisodia and other cabinet leaders were seen campaigning for the MCD bypolls over the past two weeks. Senior AAP leader and MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak said on multiple occasions that he was confident of the results.
“I visited various polling booths and was confident of AAP’s victory,” he earlier told ThePrint.
Last month, AAP’s debut performance in Surat municipal corporation elections was appreciated as it was the first time that the party won seats in civic polls in Gujarat.
AAP candidate Dhirender Kumar has won the Kalyanpuri ward by 7,043 votes. Party nominees Sunita Mishra in Shalimar Bagh North and Vijay Kumar in Trilokpuri won by 2,705 and 4,986 votes, respectively.
Rohini-C ward candidate Ram Chander won by 2,985 votes.
Congress candidate Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad emerged victorious from Chauhan Bangar against AAP’s Mohammad Ishraq Khan, election officials said.
(With PTI)
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The Delhi unit of BJP inspires no confidence at the State or City level. Look for totally new faces without past baggage, instead of waiting for the present lot to run out of steam which may take 15 years, their capacity to damage BJP is huge.