Delhi MCD Vote Count: BJP, AAP Open Tally With 1 Seat Each in MCD Bypolls
BJP grabs one seat, surges ahead in five as AAP falters badly.
Vote counting for the crucial by-elections in 12 wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) began at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delivering an immediate jolt by clinching one seat outright and racing to commanding leads in five additional wards. The saffron surge has sent shockwaves through political corridors, turning these seemingly routine civic bypolls into a high-stakes referendum on the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) grip over Delhi’s municipal governance ahead of the 2027 Assembly battle.
Out of the 12 wards that went to polls on November 30, nine were previously controlled by the BJP while three were held by the AAP. Early trends indicate the BJP is not only poised to retain almost all its earlier seats but is also threatening to snatch at least one AAP stronghold. The lone seat officially declared so far has gone to the BJP, reinforcing its narrative of a resounding comeback in the capital’s local bodies after the 2022 setback.
Voter turnout remained notably subdued at 38.51 per cent—marking a sharp decline from the 50.47 per cent recorded during the full-scale MCD elections in 2022 that swept AAP to power. Political analysts attribute the lower participation to typical by-election apathy, winter chill, and the lack of the intense door-to-door mobilisation that characterises general elections, factors that appear to have favoured the BJP’s highly disciplined booth-level machinery.
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The State Election Commission left nothing to chance, establishing ten heavily guarded counting centres across Kanjhawala, Pitampura, Bharat Nagar, Civil Lines, Rouse Avenue, Dwarka, Najafgarh, Gole Market, Pushp Vihar, and Mandawali. Each centre operates with sealed strong rooms, multi-layer security cordons, CCTV surveillance, and strictly controlled entry-exit protocols involving candidate agents and micro-observers to ensure absolute transparency throughout the process.
As round-after-round counting of postal ballots and Electronic Voting Machines continues, the BJP’s dominant performance is already intensifying pressure on the Kejriwal-led AAP government, particularly over persistent civic grievances—mountains of garbage, illegal parking, waterlogging, and stray cattle—that dominated campaigning. With several wards still in play and margins fluctuating, Delhi’s political temperature is soaring, and final outcomes expected by early afternoon could reshape the narrative for the next two years.
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