New Delhi: The BJP swept to a landslide victory in all three municipalities of Delhi on Wednesday. According to the final tally, BJP has won 181 wards while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) finishes a distant second with 48 wards, Congress gets 30.
In MCD North, BJP led in 64 wards, AAP 20 wards and the Congress 13. In MCD East, out of 64 wards, BJP led in 49 wards, AAP in just 9 and Congress in 3.
In MCD East, Congress put up its strongest performance, leading in 13 wards. But here too, the BJP left its rivals behind by leading in 70 of the 104 wards. The AAP managed leads in just 15.
Trends for all the wards have now come in.
Following the results, a number of Congress leaders resigned from their posts. Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken resigned, holding himself responsible for another poor performance by the party. Congress' Delhi in-charge PC Chacko also stepped down, and sent his resignation to party chief Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Later, AICC general secretary Gurudas Kamat also announced his resignation.
In thinly-veiled criticism of her own party's election campaign, senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit, in response to a question, said her face did not appear on the Congress posters for the MCD polls, because she was never even asked to campaign.
Meanwhile, AAP MLA from Chandni Chowk Alka Lamba also offered to resign from her post.
Expressing gratitude for bestowing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with their mandate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday thanked the people of New Delhi for choosing the saffron party.
Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister lauded the endeavours of the leaders of the saffron cadre in making the big win possible.
"Grateful to people of Delhi for faith in BJP. I laud hardwork of team BJP which made the resounding MCD win possible," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.
AAP leaders including Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia were huddled at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence as the trends showed a poor show by the party.
The defeat of the AAP comes close on the heels of the bypolls for Rajouri Garden Assembly seat where BJP-Akali Dal candidate won while AAP candidate lost his security deposit.
Reacting to the loss, AAP minister Gopal Rai said the results were not the reflection of a 'Modi wave' but of tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the polling.
Counting of votes began at 8 AM today with the BJP gaining early leads in all the three municipal corporations – NDMC, SDMC and EDMC.
Voting to pick three new municipal corporations in Delhi took place on Sunday, in which 54 per cent of the 1.32 crore electorate exercised their franchise till 5.30 pm when polling ended in 270 wards of the three municipal corporations.
On polling day, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal attacked the State Election Commission claiming that reports of "faulty" EVMs were pouring in from across the national capital.
The Aam Aadmi Party chief also alleged that many voters with valid voter slips were "not allowed" to exercise their franchise in the municipal polls. Arvind Kejriwal had earlier demanded that the election be postponed till arrangements for VVPAT-equipped EVM were made.
The state election commission denied the charges.
"EVM has proved that its unhackable. It is a robust machine. Don't think there should be any question related to EVM," State Election commissioner S K Shrivastava said.
Polling did not take place in two wards, Maujpur in east Delhi and Sarai Pipal Thala in north Delhi where a candidate each of the Samajwadi Party died.
Kejriwal's former party colleague Yogendra Yadav, who now leads the Swaraj India, wrote an open letter to the chief minister and challenged him to win at least 50 percent seats in the civic polls or step down.
