The political landscape of Delhi's civic body witnessed a significant shift as the results for 12 crucial by-elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) were announced on Wednesday. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the dominant force, winning seven of the contested seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) secured three wards, while the Congress managed to win one. In a notable development, the All India Forward Bloc opened its account in the MCD with a victory in the high-profile Chandni Mahal constituency.
Post-Result Numbers and Political Implications
With these latest victories, the BJP's tally in the 250-member House has risen to 123 seats. This puts the party just three seats short of the simple majority mark of 126. The AAP now holds 101 seats, the Congress has 9, and the Forward Bloc holds 1. The Indraprastha Vikas Party (IVP), which did not contest these bypolls, retains 15 councillors, alongside one independent member.
This outcome is particularly critical in the run-up to the April 2025 mayoral elections. The political arithmetic shifted earlier when 16 AAP councillors defected to form the IVP, handing the BJP a crucial numerical advantage that allowed it to form the mayor's office. The latest results further consolidate the BJP's position in the civic body.
Key Constituency Battles and Major Upsets
The most significant upset of the bypolls occurred in Chandni Mahal. This seat, which AAP had won with the highest margin in the 2022 MCD polls, was captured by the Forward Bloc's Mohammad Imran. Imran, backed extensively by former AAP leader and ex-MLA Shoaib Iqbal, won by a substantial margin of 4,692 votes. Shoaib Iqbal had quit AAP on November 9 after being denied a ticket for his preferred candidate and campaigned vigorously for Imran.
For the BJP, the results presented a mixed bag. While the party previously held 9 of these 12 seats, it managed to retain only 7. It faced losses in Sangam Vihar-A and Mundka, where local party members attributed the defeat to public discontent with sitting BJP MLAs. However, the party's overall vote share saw a positive swing, rising by nearly 6%.
In contrast, the AAP's vote share fell sharply from 42% in the 2022 civic election to 34% this time. The Congress, which won one ward, witnessed a modest rise in its vote share from 11.6% to 13.4%.
Notable Victories and Close Contests
Congress's Suresh Choudhary won the Sangam Vihar-A seat, vacated by BJP's Chandan Choudhary after her Assembly win, by a margin of 3,628 votes.
The BJP secured the largest victory margin of these bypolls in Shalimar Bagh-B, where Anita Jain won by a massive 10,101 votes. The seat was previously held by Councillor Rekha Gupta, who resigned after becoming an MLA.
In Greater Kailash, BJP's Anjum Mandal defeated AAP candidate Eeesha Gupta by 4,065 votes. The BJP also reclaimed the Chandni Chowk seat from AAP, with Suman Kumar Gupta defeating AAP's Harsh Sharma by 1,182 votes.
One of the closest contests was in Naraina, where AAP's Rajan Arora clinched victory by a mere 148 votes after trailing until the penultimate round of counting. He finished with 10,423 votes against BJP's Chandrakanta Shivani's 10,275.
Election Process and Commission Reforms
The bypolls, held on November 30, saw 51 candidates in the fray across 12 wards. A total of 269,992 votes were polled, including 2,604 NOTA votes (0.96%). Polling was conducted smoothly across 580 stations at 143 locations, managed by 2,320 personnel supported by a reserve force of 464.
State Election Commissioner Vijay Dev stated that counting across 10 centres was conducted seamlessly. He highlighted that electoral rolls were provided in alphabetical order this time, easing the process for polling staff. "We introduced several reforms in these elections and plan to implement more to encourage greater voter participation," Dev said. The seats had fallen vacant after sitting councillors were elected as MLAs or MPs.
