By Ashima Makhija
The highly anticipated Municipal Corporations election in Delhi came to an end on April 23 with an overall voter turnout recorded at approximately 53%. This MCD poll was a crucial election for three parties: the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was looking for a third consecutive victory in the polls, the Congress, which wished to regain some of its lost public base and the Aam Aadmi Party, whose efficiency and popularity was put to the test in these elections. All the three parties had campaigned vigorously and bitterly in the past weeks, with party flags and allegations flying around in the national capital.
The three camps of war
After the recent state elections, the BJP, once again exhibited its political ambition, by decorating its electoral thoroughfare with some of the most eminent names. On 16 April, BJP Delhi Chief Manoj Tiwari released the party’s manifesto, Sankalp Patra along with senior party leaders including Union Ministers, Vijay Goel and Harsh Vardhan. The Charter of Commitment promises not to levy any new municipal taxes, ensure the provision of meals priced at 10 rupees by civic bodies and work towards a Delhi as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Aam Aadmi Party planned to garner votes with its slogan, Garbage-free Delhi, corruption-free MCD. Arvind Kejriwal, the national convener for AAP has stated that he will make Delhi garbage free within a year if his party wins the majority in MCD polls. Moreover, committing to an ambitious promise, the AAP also pledged to eliminate all landfills by 2019 in its manifesto. AAPs manifesto, which aimed to strike a balance between the aspirations of the affluent and the working class, provides for the welfare and education of sanitation workers, along with the exemption of house tax. This election is of primary importance to the party as it hopes to reverse its losing streak in Punjab and Goa.
The Congress camp lost credibility just one week before the elections. The partys top leaders in Delhi, Arvinder Singh Lovely and Barkha Shukla Singh, in a sudden move, decided to join the BJP. The election has been nothing short of defectors. Several leaders of the Congress have expressed their discontent with the party and entered the BJP camp. Arvinder Lovely recently said, The Congress I joined was always ready to help the poor. The Congress of today is not listening to its own leaders, how will they ever listen to the people? So, while Rahul Gandhi remained missing from the campaigns, Delhi Parishad Congress Chief, Ajay Maken, was caught in a muddle right before the polls and is being viewed as the key person responsible for Lovely’s defection.
The AAP-BJP clash
In an election, where the AAP and the Congress were trying their best to put an end to the 10-year-old BJP regime, allegations were bound to fly. BJPs promise not to levy taxes was actually brought up in response to Kejriwals statement that power and water tariffs will go up if BJP ends up winning the election. BJP Delhi Chief, Mr Tiwari countered these accusations by stating that Kejriwal was simply trying to scare people and that BJP will resist all moves that hike taxes. The Delhi government has an annual budget of ?48,000 crore in which, the civic bodies have a share of ?9,000 crore. But, they received only ?2,800 crore. We will force the government to release the dues, Tiwari added.
On the last day of campaigning, Mr Kejriwal told Delhi’s voters, “If you vote for the BJP then you will be responsible if you have dengue in your family.” Mr Kejriwal has also accused the BJP of disrupting electricity and water supply to damage his party’s chances. “Your fight is with me, so do not harm the people of Delhi,” he told the BJP in a dramatic appeal. On March 22, Delhi CM said he feared 5-10% EVM tampering in Delhi civic elections. He accused the Modi government of taking part in vindictive politics and of doing “everything to stop us (AAP) from working”.
The predicted victor
Exit polls predict another sweeping victory for the BJP which is expected to bag a possible 202-220 out of the existing 272 seats. While Tiwari has accredited PM Modis policies for the anticipated victory, Congress spokesperson Sharmishta Mukherjee said, If these numbers are right, then we will definitely be worried. Congress is expected to win 19-31 seats and for AAP, the prediction stands at 23 seats. The results of the controversial MCD polls, however, will come out on April 26, 2017.
Featured Image Source: The Indian Express