MCD bypolls: Sign of revival, says Cong; BJP alleges 'match fixing'

The municipal corporation (MCD) bypoll results announced on Wednesday were termed a sign of revival of the party by the Congress, while the BJP alleged "max fixing" between its rivals.

Congress candidate Chaudhary Zubair Khan won the Chauhan Bangar ward by a whopping margin of over 10,000 votes defeating AAP candidate and ex-MLA Mohammad Ishraq Khan.

The leaders of AAP, which swept the bypolls winning four of the five wards, exuded hope that they would win the 2022 municipal corporation elections, after a "clean sweep" in the "semi final". The BJP's tally in the bypolls was zero.

Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar said in a press conference that following the MCD bye-election results for the five wards, the Congress is "strongly" pitted against its rivals for the "final battle" of the MCD elections in 2022.

Kumar said in a tweet that Congress's victory in Chauhan Bangar showed that the confidence of people in the party was rising and it was a message of "revival" of the party.

"Delhiites want the Congress back in power. The bye-election results signalled their emphatic response against corruption and misrule of the BJP at municipal corporations and the Arvind Kejriwal government which has been driving Delhi towards ruin," he claimed.

The BJP drew a blank in the bypolls and even lost the Shalimar Bagh North ward, held by it, to the AAP.

"The MCD bypolls results are an outcome of match fixing by the Congress and the AAP," Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta alleged in a statement.

He claimed the bypolls results "clearly" show that the Congress and AAP had "teamed up" to defeat the BJP.

"The decrease in vote share of the Congress in Shalimar Bagh and its increase in Chauhan Bangar ward is proof enough that the Congress and the AAP conspired against the BJP," Gupta alleged.

The Delhi BJP president said that the party will deliberate over the reasons behind its defeat and weed out the shortcomings.

"We will contest 2022 MCD polls with renewed energy and strategy. No victory or defeat is final for any political party, and I am sure we will win the 2022 elections," he said.

The party will hold a meeting to discuss what went wrong and try to rectify it, he said.

The Delhi Congress president said that the people have rejected the BJP for its 15 years of "misrule".

He claimed Congress's vote share in MCD bypolls has gone up from 6 per cent in the Assembly elections in 2020,to 22 per cent, while the BJP suffered a 10 per cent reduction in its vote percentage and AAP a 5.50 per cent reduction.

He asserted that the Congress will win the MCD elections in 2022 and credited the bypoll victory in Chauhan Bangar to the "positive leadership" of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad, who registered the lone victory for the party, said that the people in Chauhan Bangar gave him an overwhelming support as he received 16,500 votes out of the total 22,000 votes polled.

"The humiliation of the BJP and the AAP was so complete that all the votes in two polling booths were cast to me, indicating that even the polling agents of both these parties also voted for the Congress," he claimed.

Senior AAP leader Raghav Chadha said that the party has won the "semi-final decisively" with roughly one year to go for MCD finals.

"It is time for Delhiites to put an end to the 15-year corruption-plagued rule of the BJP in MCD. With AAP ruling MCDs and Delhi, the double engine Kejriwal government will run full steam," he said.

AAP's incharge of MCD affairs Durgesh Pathak said BJP should step down from the municipal corporations after its "miserable" defeat in the bypolls.

"The result of the MCD bye-election is showing the mood of the people of Delhi. In the upcoming MCD elections next year the BJP will be thrown out of power," Pathak claimed.