New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been governing the Delhi Municipal Corporations for over eight years now, since before its trifurcation, suffered a major setback losing 10 of the 13 wards to which byelection was held.
Contesting its maiden civic polls in the national capital, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) grabbed five wards from the once dominant BJP, and the Congress, believed to be down and out, took four. The BJP could retain only two wards, and won one.
As counting of votes cast in the civic by-polls on May 15 got over here on Tuesday, independent candidate Rajendra Singh Tanwar, who won from Bhati ward of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (South DMC), announced he was joining the Congress.
He won by 3,152 votes, and had unsuccessfully contested the 2012 civic polls on the Congress ticket.
Of seven wards of the South DMC to which bypolls were held, Matiala, Vikas Nagar, Nanakpura and Tehkhand were won by the Aam Aadmi Party while the BJP (Nawada), Congress (Munirka) and an independent (Bhati) won a ward each.
The Congress swept the by-polls in East Delhi Municipal Corporation (East DMC) by winning both Khichripur and Jhilmil wards while the BJP led the way in North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North DMC) by winning two of the four wards — Shalimar Bagh North and Wazirpur.
The Congress also won from Qamaruddin Nagar while the AAP registered victory in Ballimaran ward in the North DMC.
Congress candidate Ashok Bhardwaj who got 15,892 votes won by the highest margin of 7,434 votes from Qamaruddin Nagar under North DMC. The runner-up was BJP’s Anil Sinha, who polled 8,458 votes.
The lowest margin of victory was registered at Nanakpura ward of South DMC, where AAP’s Anil Malik defeated the BJP’s Nitin Sharma by 522 votes.
While Malik secured 6,566 votes, Sharma could manage 6,044 votes.
The 13 wards across the three civic bodies in Delhi fell vacant after the corporators resigned to contest the Delhi assembly polls in 2013 and 2014.