MCD mayoral polls: All BJP nominees had defeated AAP rivals

New Delhi: All three BJP mayoral nominees had defeated candidates of the AAP as their immediate rivals in the Delhi municipal polls, which was swept by the saffron party.

Elections to the mayor in the three corporations are due on May 18 (NDMC), May 19 (SDMC) and May 22 (EDMC).

The BJP is set to get the posts of mayor and deputy mayor unopposed in all three civic bodies.

In the high-stakes municipal contest last month, the Aam Aadmi Party was pegged as the closest competition to the BJP, which retained its control of the corporation, it had assumed in 2007.

In South Delhi Municipal Corporation, BJP's Kamaljeet Sehrawat had trounced AAP's Sushma Bansal in Dwarka-B ward by a record margin of 9,866 votes, the highest margin in the entire polls. Sehrawat polled 14,613 while Bansal could just get 4,747 votes. She is the BJP's mayoral nominee in the SDMC.

The saffron party won 70 out of the 104 wards that had gone to polls in areas under the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

The post of mayor sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second for open category, third for reserved category, and the remaining two also being in the open category.

As per the rule, the mayors are to be elected in the first meeting of the municipal house after the elections. The MCD polls were held on April 23, in which the BJP registered a thumping victory by winning 181 of the 270 wards.

In the civic elections, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party had finished behind the BJP with 48 wards in its kitty, while the Congress suffered a humiliating loss managing only 30 wards.

BJP's Preety Aggarwal, the mayoral nominee in the NDMC, had defeated AAP's Abhinav Mishra for the Rohini-F ward by a margin of 5,413 votes. Aggarwal had bagged 11,723 votes while Mishra finished second with 6,310.

The saffron party won 64 out of the 103 wards that had gone to polls in areas under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

In East Delhi Municipal Corporation's Geeta Colony ward the BJP's Neema Bhagat defeated AAP's Pooja Chhabra by 2,869 votes as her immediate rival. Bhagat, the mayoral nominee in the EDMC, had polled 10,399 votes. The BJP won 47 wards in the EDMC.

Delhi has 272 wards falling under the three corporations, while polls to Maujpur ward in east Delhi was held on May 14, Sarai Pipal ward in north Delhi will go to polls on May 21. Elections in these two wards were postponed due to death of candidates.

The ward tally of the AAP in the civic polls was poor as well -- NDMC (21), SDMC (16) and EDMC (11).

Eleven wards were won by others -- six (Independent candidates), three (BSP), and one each by INLD and SP.

Even for the post of deputy mayor, barring in SDMC, the BJP's nominees are those candidates, who had defeated those from the AAP, as their immediate rival.

Kailash Sankla (Punjabi Bagh ward) is the BJP nominee for the post of deputy mayor in the SDMC. He had defeated Congress' Jai Prakash Panwar.

The BJP had fielded all fresh faces in the municipal polls this year which had seen a voter turnout of 53.53 per cent.