Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday appeared heading to capture the three newly-created municipal corporations in the capital, one with help from independents, cruising ahead of Congress in the civic body polls.
While it was poised to win North and South Corporations comfortably, in the East, the BJP looks to be emerging as the single largest party and is confident of getting the support of independents to cross the midway mark.
With several of its candidates winning, the saffron brigade also clocked leads in 138 of total 272 wards, while the Congress trailed with 30 after first few hours of counting of votes.
Though BJP is set to win the civic body polls, the main opposition Congress has also made significant gains as the party is expected to win 15 seats more than it total tally in 2007 elections
Of the 206 results declared by State Election Commission out of 272 wards in all three corporations till 4.50pm, BJP has bagged 106 while Congress has won 60 seats.
BSP has bagged 14 seats, RLD three, NCP and SP two each and JD(U) and INLD one each while 17 Independents have also won.
In South Delhi Corporation, BJP has won or is leading in as many as 43 out of the 104 wards while Congress candidates are ahead in 29 seats. Interestingly, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) is ahead in 7 seats, while others are surging slowly in 25 seats.
BJP, which is leading in 60 seats, has a comfortable edge over the main opposition Congress in North Delhi as the latter is ahead in 28 seats for which trends are available.
In East Delhi Corporation, BJP is surging ahead in 35 seats, while Congress is said to be trailing as it leads in 18 seats only.
North Delhi: In North Delhi Municipal Corporation, the trends are available for all 104 seats where the BJP has won or leading in 60 seats, the principle opposition Congress party is ahead with 28, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) is ahead in four seats while independents are leading in twelve seats.
East Delhi: Out of 64 wards, BJP is said to be leading in 35 seats, Congress in 18 and BSP is moving ahead in three seats, while independents are also reported to be going strong in nine seats.
South Delhi: In the South Delhi Municipal Corporation also, the trends are available for total 104 seats. Here, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading in 43 seats, the main opposition Congress party is ahead with 29, while the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) has gained lead in seven seats. Independents here are leading in twenty five seats.
South has the highest number of 904 candidates followed by North (885) and East (634).
Prominent winners
The first result to be declared was that of Shahdara (SC) in East Corporation where BJP’s Balbir Singh defeated Congress’ Jagdish by a margin of 1,28 votes. Singh polled 6,809 votes while his nearest rival got 5,571 votes.
BJP’s Subhash Arya, the Leader of undivided MCD House, trumped his rival from Congress Manmohan Singh Kochar. MCD Leader of Opposition Jai Kishan Sharma (Congress) lost his electoral battle from Najafgarh.
Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta’s wife Shobha has won in Rohini Central defeating her Congress rival Dr Monica Puri. Delhi Mayor Rajni Abbi (BJP) is also leading in Mukherjee Nagar. Among prominent candidates who have won the election in their respective wards are: Dharmveer (Congress) from RK Puram, Radhey Shyam (BJP) from Vasant Vihar, Tulsi Ram from Dharampura, BJP’s Deputy Mayor Anil Sharma has also won with a comfortable margin. Pramila Tukas, who contested as an independent candidate from Munirka, has also tasted success.
Elaborate arrangements by SEC
The Delhi State Election Commission had set up counting centres at 32 places across the city for counting of votes for the recently trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls.
A total of 2,423 candidates contested from 272 wards, which saw a record 58 percent turnout on Sunday.
The outcome of the municipal polls is seen as crucial for Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Congress as well as opposition BJP with leaders believing that it could be an indicator for what is in store for the Assembly polls which is 18 months away.
BJP, which has 164 councilors in the undivided MCD against Congress’ 67 and BSP’s 17, harped on alleged corruption by Dikshit government, while Congress targeted the saffron party on its “inefficient and corrupt” administration in MCD.
The run-up to the polls also saw some embarrassment for BJP when one of its candidates, a sitting councilor, was arrested for allegedly murdering a party worker, who was opposed to him.
A total of 1.12 crore eligible voters exercised their franchise in the polls which include 42.95 lakh voters in North Delhi Municipal Corporation, 42.67 lakh voters in South Delhi Municipal Corporation and 27.16 lakh voters in East Delhi Municipal Corporation.
There are 104 each wards in South and North Corporations and 64 in the East, of which 138 seats are reserved for women. South has the highest number of 904 candidates followed by North (885) and East (634).
The main contenders are BJP and Congress, but smaller parties like Samajwadi Party and BSP are giving sleepless nights to them.
Though in public both the parties make claims about clean sweep in the elections, leaders in Congress and BJP are keeping their fingers crossed as the polls are nearing.
Presence of rebels and independents are also keeping both the parties on their toes as they believe that they could play spoilsport for them. The two parties have also expelled a number of leaders to send a strong message to their cadre.
