New Delhi: Two exit polls on Monday predicted a landslide victory for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, with close to 50 percent vote share in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections for 250 wards that were held on December 4 and whose official results would be declared on December 8.
According to Aaj Tak-Axis My India , AAP is projected to get 149-171 seats while BJP is said to be getting 69-91 seats in the MCD elections. Congress is tipped to win 3-7 seats while other parties may get 5-9 seats.
While, Times Now-ETG showed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's party getting anywhere between 146 and 156 wards. BJP is projected to win 84-94 seats, Congress may get 6-10 seats and Others may scalp 0-4 seats.
Garbage collection and landfills emerged as one of the biggest issues in the fight between the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP, which has been controlling municipal bodies for 15 years.
The polls are crucial for the AAP and its leader Arvind Kejriwal as they seek expansion of the party ahead of 2024 general elections in the country.
A victory in the MCD polls will not only cement AAP's place in Delhi but will fuel its aspiration to emerge as a serious contender to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the national scene.
The BJP, which had deployed its top leaders, including national president JP Nadda, 19 Union ministers like Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal and chief ministers of six states in the campaign, is also seeking redemption through a morale-boosting victory.
The party received a drubbing at the hands of AAP in the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls and won just eight of the 70 seats.
With a unified MCD led by a mayor of the party, the BJP can continue to challenge the AAP and Kejriwal in the national capital's politics.
There were 1,349 candidates in the fray and over 1.45 crore electors were eligible to exercise their franchise.
Both the AAP and the BJP have exuded confidence that they will emerge victorious in the polls while the Congress is trying to regain lost turf.
The BJP, which has governed the civic body in Delhi since 2007, is looking to maintain its winning streak while the Aam Aadmi Party, which has a majority in the Assembly, is looking to make inroads in the first municipal election in the capital after the delimitation of wards.
This is the first civic election after the fresh delimitation exercise. There were 272 wards in Delhi and three corporations- NDMC, SDMC, and EDMC in Delhi from 2012-2022 that later reunified into an MCD that had formally come into existence on May 22.
(With inputs from agencies)
