By: Yash Gupte
The BJP had emerged victorious on 181 seats in 2017 while the AAP won 49 seats. This time, in 2022, the polling trends are in favour of AAP different polling agencies have predicted a big win for the Arvind Kejriwal led party.
In a country like India where elections in different states and local bodies are scheduled round the year and though every election is a favourite topic of discussion among the people, some elections are an exception and draw special attention. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections are one of those unique elections. This is primarily due to two reasons. One can be the elections to the municipal corporation of the national capital and the second one can be the exit polls predicting the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ascending the throne of Delhi for the first time.
Exit polls conducted by the different polling agencies have predicted a clear and smooth win for the Aam Aadmi Party. Most of the polling agencies have predicted that the AAP can emerge victorious on around 141- 172 seats out of the total 250 seats. The BJP is in power in the MCD from past 15 years and is eyeing for a fourth consecutive win but this time AAP is expected to break BJP’s winning streak and form a government in the MCD. The Congress party has been suffering back-to-back losses in the national capital since 2015 in parliamentary, assembly and municipal corporation polls.
Around 50 percent voter turnout was recorded in the elections to the MCD held on December 4, 2022. As compared to the previous election held in 2017, the voter turnout was low by 3 percent this time.
The former MCD was established in 1958. It was trifurcated in 2012 when Sheila Dikshit was the chief minister of Delhi. Between 2012 and 2022, Delhi had 272 municipal wards and three corporations -- North Delhi, South Delhi and East Delhi municipal corporations. These three civic bodies were reunified into the Municipal Corporation of Delhi which came into existence on May 22.
Source: Delhi State Election Commission and Media Reports
The BJP had emerged victorious on 181 seats in 2017 while the AAP won 49 seats. This time, in 2022, the polling trends are in favour of AAP different polling agencies have predicted a big win for the Arvind Kejriwal led party.
NewsX-Jan ki Baat gave AAP 159-175 seats, BJP 70-92 seats, Congress 4-7 seats and others one seat. Times Now-ETG poll has predicted 146-156 seats to AAP, 84-94 seats to BJP, 6-10 seats to Congress and 0-4 seats to others. Aaj Tak-My Axis India poll predicted AAP getting 149-171 seats of 250 seats in MCD, BJP 69-91, Congress 3-7 and others 5-9. It also predicted a 43 percent vote share for AAP, 35 percent vote share for BJP, 10 percent for Congress and 12 percent for others. The polls predicted that BJP, which has won three successive civic elections in the national capital, will be ousted from power in the first election since the re-unification of the municipal corporations.
The results of the polls to 250 wards of MCD will be declared after counting of votes on December 7.