The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won 7 out of the 12 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) seats that went to bypolls. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) secured 3 seats, while the Congress and the All India Forward Bloc opened their accounts with one seat each.
With these results, the BJP now has 122 members in the 250-member House, falling short of the majority mark of 126 by four members. AAP has 102 councillors, while Congress stands fourth with just 9 members. The Indraprastha Vikas Party (IVP), which did not field any candidates in the bypolls, has 16 members in the House.
AAP suffered a significant setback in Chandni Mahal, a constituency where it had delivered its strongest performance in the 2022 municipal elections, but it fell to third place this time. Mohammad Imran, backed by former MLA and AAP defector Shoaib Iqbal, won with a margin of 4,592 votes, bringing the Forward Bloc into the municipal corporation for the first time.
The vacancy in Chandni Mahal arose after AAP’s Aaley Iqbal Mohammad won the Matia Mahal Assembly constituency in February. AAP fielded Muddasir Usman Qureshi, while the BJP nominated Sunil Sharma. After quitting AAP on November 9 over dissatisfaction with candidate selection, Shoaib Iqbal actively campaigned for Imran.
The BJP also faced setbacks, retaining only 7 of the 12 seats it previously held. The party lost Sangam Vihar, and Mundka, with both defeats linked to voter discontent over local BJP legislators.
Congress candidate Suresh Chaudhary won Sangam Vihar by 3,268 votes, filling the vacancy created when BJP’s Chandan Choudhary secured an Assembly seat. AAP won Mundka amid resentment against BJP MLA Gajendra Daral, and also captured Naraina by targeting the BJP for fielding a non-local candidate.
BJP’s Anita Jain scored the most decisive victory in these by-elections, winning Shalimar Bagh by 10,101 votes. The seat had been held by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, who vacated it after her Assembly election win. In Greater Kailash, BJP’s Anjum Mandal clinched a narrow 365-vote victory.
The BJP also regained the Chandni Chowk seat from AAP with a margin of 1,182 votes.
In the 2022 municipal elections, AAP had emerged as the dominant party with 134 seats. However, the political landscape shifted ahead of the April 2025 mayoral elections, when 16 AAP councillors defected to form the Indraprastha Vikas Party, giving the BJP a crucial numerical advantage in the House.
