Slumdwellers desert AAP, go back to Cong

Breaking away from the Assembly election results in 2015, the municipal poll results sprang up different trends on Wednesday. The dwellers from slums, unauthorised JJ clusters, who had shifted to the Aam Aadmi Party in the Assembly polls, chose to stick to their traditional party, the Congress. The AAP’s vote share in the municipal polls shrunk to 26.23 per cent (almost half) of what the party had won in Assembly polls (54.3 per cent). The Congress, which had failed to open an account in the Assembly polls two years back, managed to bag 30 wards, thereby increasing its vote share from 9.8 per cent to 21.09 per cent.

This has been attributed to the traditional voters of the grand old party who had voted for the Aam Aadmi Party two years back, making a switch back. This marks a remarkable shift in the voting patterns in the national capital as the AAP has been wooing the voters from the backward colonies with decisions such as halving the electricity tariff in the city and providing lifeline supply of water to small households.

Interestingly, the Delhi’s ruling party has also lost voters from other sections including the urban electors who had voted for the party in large numbers.

AAP had emerged as a third alternative for a large number of voters with its poll promise to change the face of the city. However, barely two years later, it failed to appeal to the masses.