Congress bagged one seat and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) another in the by-elections to two municipal wards in Delhi, the results of which were announced today.
Mukesh Goel of Congress won Sarai Pipal Thala ward of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and AAP’s Reshma emerged victorious in Maujpur ward of East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).
Goel, who was the Leader of Opposition in the NDMC House, defeated BJP’s Mangat Ram Sharma by a margin of 2,743 votes. The Congress leader polled 10,946 votes.
Reshma belonging to AAP defeated Congress’ Rekha Sharma by a margin of 699 votes.
Delhi has a total of 272 wards spread across North, South and East Delhi municipal corporations.
Polling in these two wards was postponed due to the death of candidates. While Maujpur went to polls on May 14, by-elections for the Sarai Pipal ward was held on May 21.
BJP reign
Voting for the remaining 270 wards of the three municipal corporations was held on April 23 and the results were announced on April 26.
The BJP retained control of the three corporations by bagging 181 of the 270 wards. The AAP managed to win only 48 seats while the Congress was reduced to a poor third with a tally of just 30.
The corporation-wise tally of the BJP was: SDMC (70), NDMC (64) and EDMC (47) as against the AAP’s tally of 16, 21 and 11 respectively and the Congress’ 12, 15 and 3.
Candidates death
In Sarai Pipal Thala ward, Samajwadi Party candidate Dinesh Singh had died and his son Himanshu was in the fray.
Sarai Pipal ward was previously held by the BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party). The other main contenders in the election were Mohammad Sarif (BSP) and Rajeev Bansal (AAP).
In the Maujpur ward, the polling was postponed due to the death of Samajwadi Party candidate Naseema. Her daughter Shaheen was in the fray. The ward was previously held by BJP.
Other main contenders in the election include Suman Sharma (BJP), Rekha Sharma (Congress) and Reshma (AAP).
With today’s results, the overall tally of the Congress and the AAP, both of which received a severe drubbing in the high-stakes MCD polls, have gone up to 31 and 49 respectively.