The stakes are high for BJP in by-polls to 13 municipal wards on Sunday as 7 seats were held by it in 2012 elections to the then unified MCD.
By-polls are necessitated as altogether 13 councillors got elected to Delhi Assembly in 2013 and 2015.
In 2012 MCD elections, BJP candidates had won the Nangloi Jat, Shalimar Bagh (North) and Wazirpur wards, now falling under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC).
Nangloi Jat seat fell vacant after the then councilor Raghuvendra Shokeen left BJP to join AAP and become MLA in 2015 Assembly election. The Wazirpur ward was vacated by the election of BJP's Mahender Nagpal to Delhi Assembly in 2013.
Ex-MLA Nagpal is again contesting from Wazirpur ward.
The councilor of Matiala ward in South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) Rajesh Gehlot had also vacated the seat after being elected to Delhi Assembly in 2013. Ashok Sharma will try to wrest back the seat which is expected to witness keen contest among BJP, AAP and Congress.
The Nanakpura ward in SDMC fell vacant after election of the BJP ward councilor Anil Kumar Sharma from R K Puram constituency in 2013 Assembly elections. BJP's Kartar Singh Tanwar from Bhati ward later joined AAP and won from Chhatarpur Assembly seat in 2015 elections.
The lone BSP ward councillor from Tekhand, under SDMC, had also joined AAP and later become MLA of Tughlaqabad in 2015 Assembly election.
Vinod Kumar Binny, who was elected councilor from Khichari Pur ward in East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) as an independent candidate in 2012 MCD elections had later joined AAP and become MLA from Laxmi Nagar constituency in 2013.
Binny has been again fielded by BJP from the Khichari Pur ward. Jitender Singh Shunty who held the Jhilmil ward and later won Assembly election in 2013 from Shahdara constituency was also fielded by the party from the same ward.
The six wards going for by-polls were held by independents while Ballimaran ward was won in 2012 MCD elections by Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate Imran Hussain. He later joined AAP and after winning in 2015 Assembly elections became a minister in Kejriwal government.
The independent ward councilors from Munirka and Nawada Parmila Tokas and Naresh Balyan had later also joined AAP and become MLAs in 2015 Assembly elections.
Even as Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay has claimed to poll "maximum share of votes" and give the "best" performance in the by-polls, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) is eyeing to upstage the party paving way for its victory in the general elections for the three municipal corporations in 2017.
Congress which has fielded its candidates from all the 13 wards is also geared up to spring up a surprise to its political adversaries.
