The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday led a historic upset, beating the ruling BJP in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls, and ending its 15-year reign in the civic body.
The victory is made all the more important by the fact that the AAP won the polls after the civic body - the world's second biggest after the Tokyo Metropolitan Government - was merged from three entities into one and the number of wards were reduced from 272 to 250 after a delimitation process earlier this year.
In 2017, when the MCD was still comprised of the North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations, the BJP had won 181 seats, a whopping 66 per cent of the 272 seats, and AAP trailed far behind with just 48 (or 17 per cent of) seats, and the Congress had was close behind with 30 seats.
After the 2022 polls, however, the situation has been flipped. After back-and-forth allegations and political mudslinging, the AAP finally beat the BJP, winning 134 seats (53.6 per cent) seats out of the 250, securing a safe majority in the civic body. The BJP, despite losing the polls, however, follows very close behind the AAP with 104 (41.6 per cent) seats, while the Congress has been left in the dust with just 9 seats, and Independents winning 3.
Speaking after the win, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal thanked the people for AAP's victory and sought the cooperation of the BJP and the Congress as well as the "blessings" of the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve civic amenities in the national capital.
"We all have to improve the condition of Delhi and I need cooperation of all, including the BJP and Congress. We need cooperation of all, especially the help and blessings of the Centre and the prime minister to do so," Kejriwal said in his victory speech at AAP headquarters on DDU Marg.
BJP National Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla, on the other hand, said even after 15 years, the party retained its vote share on the basis of its work.
The BJP's northeast Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari, in a tweet in Hindi, thanked the people of Delhi and party workers for showing faith by giving so many seats to the party for the fourth consecutive time.