BJP in the current Delhi local elections retained all three municipal corporations for the third term consecutively, giving a strong defeat to the current Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP and the Congress. The AAP somehow managed to secure the second place and the third place was owned by the Congress. For AAP, the MCD election was a means to have greater control over the affairs of Delhi. The elections carry wider national ramifications as an emphatic victory for the BJP will only add stars to its gloomy world and leave a divided opposition again demoralized in the run-up to the general elections in 2019. The BJP has taken up the responsibility for the city’s civic bodies for a decade.
Following are the series of events which took place and were the highlights for the MCD Elections, 2017:
Ajay Maken expressed his grief
Maken broke down and wept on camera when he was asked about the journey of Congress leaders from the party, including Arvinder Singh Lovely, to BJP. Moreover, former CM Sheila Dikshit had put the blame upon Maken for the exodus of Congress leaders ahead of the MCD elections. When the media asked Maken about the allegations against his leadership were true during a TV news program, tears started flowing up from his eyes and he remained silent for a couple of minutes, forcing the anchor to go for an unscheduled break.
AAP accuses BJP of trying to break party
A day after the MCD election 2017, AAP legislator Alka Lamba created another controversy by claiming that BJP was trying to break her party by encroaching their MLAs.
“The BJP is making its leaders call up AAP MLAs and tell them that the party is coming to an end. You (AAP MLAs) will be given an MP ticket or an important position in the government. We can do this for you by telling (BJP president) Amit Shah…The BJP leader said Modi-ji will soon impose the President’s Rule in Delhi just like it did in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand,” Lamba said in a series of tweets.
Arvind Kejriwal threatens Delhi voters that do beware of BJP!
A day before the polls Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal created a controversy by almost threatening Delhi’s residents to not vote for the BJP. A video was shared on the social media ‘Facebook’, by Mr. Kejriwal telling the Delhi voters that they would themselves be responsible for dengue and chikungunya for five years if BJP came back to power in the three civic bodies of Delhi. However, at the end, he also came to know that the ball is now in someone else court and he was very late in his actions.
BJP secured a clean sweep in all the three civic corporations of Delhi
Shattering the hopes and confidence of AAP and Congress, BJP won all the three corporations of Delhi with a huge number of seats for the third consecutive term.
BJP claims politics of excuses and blame games has lost
After winning the MCD election 2017, BJP chief Amit Shah stated that this was the victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s politics of development and the loss of politics of ‘blame game’ and ‘excuses’ practiced by opposition parties. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari also accused the opposition leaders of doing politics of “negativity”.
Defections from Congress
The Congress election campaign for the MCD polls was hit by the defection of a few senior leaders including four-time MLA Arvinder Singh Lovely and Delhi women’s Congress chief Barkha Shukla Singh. Moreover, apart from this break up within the party, the leaders of congress had made accusation against the Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken of ignoring demands and advice of party workers.
Defection from AAP
Alike Congress, AAP had also faced certain defection ahead of the MCD election 2017. AAP MLA from Bawana, Ved Prakash, had left the party and had planned to join the BJP. Prakash made very strong allegations against the AAP leadership stating that it was inaccessible to party MLAs and claimed that 35 other AAP MLAs are also not happy with the party leadership.
AAP again blames EVMs!
“It is difficult to believe (the results). A defeat or victory by such huge margin of the polls would not have been possible without the rigging of polling machined,” were the words of the Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia when having a conference with the reporters after early leads which confirmed a massive loss for AAP. The party had been complaining against the EVMs being defective since its loss in Punjab and Goa Assembly elections 2017. AAP had even asked the Election Commission to again carry out MCD polls but now not the faulty machines but on ballot papers. However, the Election Commission said on multiple occasions that the polling machines in any case being whatsoever could not be tampered with, but AAP senior leader Sisodia made a questionable argument “Even the BJP leaders who once used to campaign against the EVM, did research against it, are now supporting it,”. This is still a controversy and nothing clear had come out from either side. The Election Commission had expressly stated that tampering of the EVMs is not possible in whatsoever any case be it.
Conclusion
It is a tough call for each and every party sitting on the opposition to bring out new things to allure the voters. As now, the public is of the opinion to cast their vote for someone who is going to work for the betterment and for them, and not just going to listen to their fake promises. However, results of this elections were shocking for all and it is being contended everywhere that BJP’s massive victory is a result of the humiliation which it faced in the capital territory elections two years back where it could able to secure only 3 seats out of a total number of 70 seats.
Against such allegations of EVM tampering or AAP leader Gopal Rai’s allegations that the BJP win in the municipal corporations is not a BJP but an EVM wave, are one-sided and proving of the Delhi exit polls results are on the other side. The leaders of the opposition are looking behind for reasons for shadowing their loss and on the other side the people of the national capital are enjoying their well-planned and well-informed decision disproving all the claims of the opposition.
The Election Commission has trashed all the allegations made upon him for providing before 2006 EVMs or stating that anyone can make a “lookalike” gadget to justify “magic or tampering”. The answer the doubts regarding the efficacy of machines, the Election Commission which has been mandated to conduct and perform the state assemblies elections and local elections announced that an EVM hackathon can be conducted on somewhere after an all-party meeting on May 12. And all the national and recognized parties have been asked to depute their representatives for the hackathon that will be hosted at the EC’s headquarters. Such strong move by the Election Commission shows its boldness while dealing with such type allegations, as it is a body of repute which has been entrusted upon to look before maintaining the decorum of the democracy in India.
