BJP seals Cong fate in MCD polls

New Delhi: The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) gave the ruling Congress a severe hammering as it bagged 164 of the 272 wards in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls.

While the Congress stood far behind with 69 wards, Others — BSP, NCP, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Uma Bharti's Bharatiya Jansakthi Party-INLD combine and independents — managed to bag 39 wards.

The BJP seems to have made the most of public dissatisfaction over the MCD's sealing drive and price rise.

The Congress drubbing could mean trouble for Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit. In fact, state BJP leader Harshvardhan has even demanded the resignation of chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

Last time, the Congress had won 108 seats in the 134- member House. The number of seats were doubled as a result of the recently-held delimitation exercise.

Chief Minister speaks The Congress, while accepting defeat, has blamed poor performance of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) in general.

"The DPCC has not come up to the expectations. I think we need to go down to why it happened and then take a decision which prepares us for the future," Dikshit said.

Dikshit said the DPCC, led by her arch-rival Rambabu Sharma, did not come up to the expectations in the elections and called for introspection on the reasons behind the party's poll debacle.

"We have to really go down into why this has happened. What was the cause of it," she said. Dikshit said that the party would start preparing for the future rightaway.

However, the Chief Minister was quick to add that the results should not be seen as a sign of things to come in the Assembly polls to be held next year.

DPCC chief's take Rambabu Sharma blamed the poor performance of the party on a number of issues related to governance in the Capital, including the sealing and demolition drives, water and power problems as also rising prices.

"For the last one year, the people of Delhi have had to deal with the sealing drive. To add to it, they also had to face demolition of houses," Sharma said reacting to the election results.

"Despite these problems, the Congress candidates and workers gave it their best shot and I really admire their determination," PTI quoted Sharma as saying.

The Congress had used the hurriedly-enacted Master Plan for Delhi 2021 as its election weapon in the MCD polls that were held under the shadow of the sealing drive.

Blame Game begins AICC General Secretary Ashok Gehlot, who is in-charge of Delhi, said the results could have much better if Dikshit and Sharma would have worked in tandem.

He made a similar remark when asked whether a more active involvement by Dikshit in the campaigning would have helped.

Gehlot attributed the defeat to issues like sealing and demolition drives in which "we did not have any role". But the climate created by them hit hard the party's poll prospects.

The AICC General Secretary also said the power and water problems also affected the party besides price rise.