Delhi MCD Election Results: BJP sweeps capital as AAP suffers massive defeat

It was yet another landslide victory for the saffron party, as BJP came out a clear winner in the civic polls in the national capital by sweeping all three corporations. Riding the Modi wave, the party won 181 seats in the three-way contest, while AAP coming in at a distant second, won only 48 seats. The Congress suffered another dismal day, winning just 30 seats.

The Arvind Kejriwal-run party tasted success in a few wards, most notably in Tilak Nagar, Sitapuri, Chauhan Banger, Khajoor Khas and Madangir.

BJP, which stole a march over both Congress and AAP, swept up Moti Nagar and Rohini E. The beleaguered Congress party won Badar and Nand Nagri.

AAP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, are in a huddle at Chief Minister Kejriwal's residence as the party takes the second spot behind the BJP.

Counting of votes began at 8 AM today with the BJP gaining early leads in all the three municipal corporations -NDMC, SDMC and EDMC.

Meanwhile, the BJP dedicated its impending win to the slain CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district and decided to refrain from any celebrations. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said that every heart is filled with grief over Monday's killing of 25 CRPF men by Naxals in Sukma and the party will not celebrate the victory.

"But for the Sukma incident, we would be on the streets celebrating this massive victory. We dedicate this win in the feet of Sukma martyrs," he said.

The AAP's humiliating defeat plunged the party into a crisis even as its top leadership put up a brave front suggesting it was all expected due to tampering with EVMs, an allegation that has been rubbished by the Election Commission.

"EVM tampering is the bitter truth of the country's democracy. One can crack jokes on us initially, but fearing being made fun of, we cannot refrain from speaking the truth," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters.

Congress whose Delhi unit president Ajay Maken had said that the MCD polls will be a referendum on Kejriwal government, settled for the third place in the contest that it had claimed to win with victory in over 200 wards.

Maken offered to resign from his post, accepting moral responsibility for the Congress' dismal performance in the civic polls.

"It is a reasonable revival of the Congress but I had hoped for something better than this. I had expected to perform a little better.

"So, as the president of Delhi Congress, I take moral responsibility and offer to resign from my post. I have decided to resign from my post," Maken said.

PC Chacko, Congress in-charge for Delhi, followed in the footsteps of Maken. He too sent his resignation to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.

Before the MCD elections kicked off, the National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) published a report giving the financial status and criminal records of the candidates fighting the MCD election 2017.

According to the report, about 30 percent of the candidate list comprise crorepatis and 7 percent of them have criminal cases pending against them. In number terms, there are 2315 candidates in the running. Of them 697 are crorepatis while 163 have criminal cases pending against them.

Interestingly, a majority of crorepatis fighting the MCD polls are from the Congress party, followed by the BJP and Aam Aadmi Party.

(With inputs from PTI)