Kejriwal reaches out to PM Modi after AAP's massive win in MCD polls

Says AAP corporators will work with BJP, all other parties to 'make Delhi clean and corruption free'; services of colleagues who had lost would also be utilised

This report has been updated. “I love you too,” a beaming Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal told cheering supporters after AAP posted a stupendous victory in the Delhi Municipal Corporation (MCD) elections. The party coasted past the halfway mark of 126 easily by leading in 136 out of 250 constituencies, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) following with just under 110 seats.

Kejriwal had three messages for voters: that AAP corporators would work with the BJP and all parties in a bipartisan manner to ‘make Delhi clean and corruption free’; and that the services of those colleagues who had lost the elections would also be utilised. “They told us, learn the art of politics – education and health don’t get votes. We’ve proved them wrong,” he said.

He also reached out, in a political gesture of equalisation, to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, seeking his cooperation in making Delhi clean and beautiful. “Ham yahan gaali-galauj karne nahin aaye hain” (we are not here to trade insults), he told supporters against a background of recent high-pitched clashes between the Lieutenant Governor, who is a representative of the central government, and the Delhi administration. While he flagged AAP’s priority of rooting out corruption, he made no mention of the money-laundering charges against jailed minister Satyendra Jain and the CBI enquiry against colleague Manish Sisodia.

An analysis of the data of the results suggests AAP was ahead in at least four Lok Sabha seats in Delhi out of the total seven. These were: North East Delhi (which saw communal riots in early 2020), Chandni Chowk (which has a large Muslim population), South Delhi and North West Delhi. In East Delhi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Gautam Gambhir, the BJP was able to get 22 wards while AAP got 11 and Congress got three. But in Meenakshi Lekhi’s Lok Sabha constituency New Delhi, out of 25 wards, the BJP got only five and AAP managed 20.

AAP’s performance in the wards, extrapolated against Vidhan Sabha seats, did not match its 2020 victory when it formed the government in Delhi. However, this was AAP’s first contest in a unified MCD and the party gained nearly 90 seats compared to 2017 when disaggregated MCD elections were held.

Both Manish Sisodia and Satyender Jain’s constituencies (Patparganj and Shakurbasti, respectively) voted for the BJP. Sisodia could only win one ward for the party, with three going to the BJP, while Jain was unable to post a single victory. The outcome was the same as in 2017. Atishi, who is credited with thoughtful contributions to health and education reforms in Delhi and represents Kalkaji, lost all wards to the BJP.

However, AAP MLAs did extremely well elsewhere. Rakhi Birla (MLA from Mangolpuri) ensured AAP victories in all the wards. So did Somnath Bharti (Malviya Nagar).

Addressing party MLAs, Manish Sisodia said: “For 15 years, BJP did no work, and the people have kicked them out." Punjab Chief Minister Bahgwant Maan said the ‘people-centric’ work of AAP in Delhi would be replicated in Punjab.

BJP’s Delhi chief Adesh Gupta conceded defeat even before the full result was out, but vowed his party would keep AAP in check. However, it was the Congress that suffered the biggest setback, reduced to under 10 wards out of 250.