New Delhi: The municipal corporation elections on Sunday will be the litmus test that will decide chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s popularity, who has been ruling the national Capital since 2015. The AAP recently suffered a drubbing in the bypoll on the Rajouri Garden Assembly seat. The BJP, which has been ruling the corporations for the last ten years, is eyeing a third consecutive term. The Congress on the other hand hopes to regain its lost ground, even though the party suffered a severe jolt when one of its prominent leaders Arvinder Singh Lovely (former Delhi unit chief) walked out and joined the BJP. The entry of other parties in the fray, including BSP, SP, JD-U and former AAP leader Yogendra Yadav-led Swaraj India, which is making its debut in civic polls this year has turned the contest interesting.
The key issues in the municipal elections include eradication of corruption, cleanliness and garbage removal, providing sanitation, combating vector-borne diseases and health and education. The AAP made an impressive debut in the MCD bypoll last year on 13 seats, where it had won five seats, followed by the Congress which won four and BJP won three seats. One seat was won by an independent who later joined the Congress. A total of 2,315 candidates are in fray for the municipal polls in the city this time and every ward has around 12 candidates contesting on it on an average. The Independents and other smaller parties that are in the fray can impact the election results this time.
According to a report by National Election Watch and Association of Democratic Reforms, a total of 697 of the 2,315 candidates (over 30 percent) in civic polls this year are crorepatis. The figure shows a seven percent hike from 2012 MCD polls which recorded 342 of the 1485 candidates, that is 23 per cent, to be crorepatis. Apart from this, 163 candidates (7 per cent of total) have criminal cases against them this is an increase from last year’s list that had 139 candidates with criminal records.
The unified municipal corporation of Delhi was trifurcated before the 2012 civic polls. The BJP had won 142 wards while the Congress had trailed bagging 77 seats in the last municipal elections. The BJP won a majority in the north and the east and was the largest party in the south MCD.
