The ruling BJP on Wednesday dominated the Municipal Corporation of Delhi bypolls, winning seven of the 12 contested wards. Despite its strong performance, the party lost two wards it had previously held.
Vote counting for the November 30 bypolls took place today. According to the Election Commission of India, the Aam Aadmi Party won three wards, while the Congress and the All India Forward Bloc secured one ward each.
These civic body bypolls served as a key litmus test for the BJP, marking its first electoral challenge since the party stormed to power after the Assembly elections in February.
Of the 12 wards where voting took place, nine were earlier held by the BJP and the remaining by AAP.
The ruling party lost the wards of Naraina and Sangam Vihar A.
In Naraina, AAP’s Rajan Arora won by just 148 votes against the BJP’s Chandrakanta Shivani, while Congress’s Suresh Choudhary won the Sangam Vihar A ward by defeating BJP’s Subhajeet Gautam with 12,766 votes.
Gautam garnered 9,138 votes.
AAP also won the Mundka (Anil by 1,577 votes) and Dakshinpuri (Ram Swaroop Kanojia by 2,262 votes) wards.
Meanwhile, the BJP’s Suman Kumar Gupta defeated AAP candidate Harsh Sharma by a margin of 1,182 votes. The party also secured a decisive victory in the Shalimar Bagh B ward, where Anita Jain beat AAP’s Babita Rana by more than 10,000 votes.