Delhi MCD Election Results 2022 Highlights AAP wrests power from BJP, wins 134 wards

After the Aam Aadmi Party Wednesday crossed the halfway mark with 134 seats in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal thanked the people for AAP’s victory and sought the cooperation of the BJP and the Congress as well as the “blessings” of the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve civic amenities here. Addressing party workers at the headquarters, Kejriwal said, “Will try to live up to expectations of people, urge parties to come together to improve Delhi.”

With 250 wards in the MCD, a party needs 126 to win. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has gotten hold of 104 seats so far, has bucked the trend predicted by exit polls. No exit poll showed the party getting more than 91 seats.

The AAP claimed a 'landslide' victory as predicted by exit polls even as BJP, which has been controlling MCDs for 15 years, exuded confidence of returning to power.

The Congress has managed to stake a claim over seven seats. Interestingly, three of these wards were won by the AAP in 2017 and one by the BJP. Independent candidate Shakeela Begum has won the Seelampur seat, while Meena Devi and Gajender Singh Daral have won the Isapur and Mundka seats, respectively.

AAP claimed that the party will do better than exit poll trends. "We are expecting better results than what the exit polls predicted. These exit polls also show that people have rejected all the allegations leveled by the BJP (against AAP) and have voted for good work," Durgesh Pathak, AAP's MCD poll in-charge, told PTI.

"I love you too," the Delhi Chief Minister said, thanking voters for the huge win in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election as he addressed AAP workers. This is the first time AAP has defeated the BJP in any election.

"We worked day and night to fix schools, we worked day and night to fix hospitals, today they have given us the responsibility of cleaning up Delhi, ending corruption... There are many responsibilities," Mr Kejriwal said.

This was the first election after the MCD was reunified earlier this year. The polls, which took place on December 4, saw a voter turnout of only 50.48% just over 73 lakh people from the total of 1.45 crore eligible voters. Data shared by the Delhi State Election Commission shows that upscale neighbourhoods of South Delhi saw the lowest voter turnout in the municipal polls. Rural pockets and parts of Northeast Delhi, where riots took place in 2020, saw the highest polling percentages.