VOTING IN...
Territory functions.
Polling will be held from 8am to 5.30pm at 13,638 polling stations across Delhi, and the votes will be counted on December 7.
The announcement of the municipal elections on November 4 led to a bitter face-off between the AAP and the BJP. The BJP has ruled the three municipal corporations for the eastern, southern and northern parts of the Capital for 15 years.
While the BJP deployed several senior Union ministers to canvas the city, the AAP campaign was led by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
These are the first elections since the Union government decided to dissolve Delhi’s erstwhile municipal corporations and reunify them into a single Municipal Corporation of Delhi, whittling down the number of wards from 272 to 250 in the process.
In its 10-point manifesto, the AAP, whose campaign was led by Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, promised to flatten Delhi’s landfills, clean up the garbage mess, weed out corruption, improve municipal hospitals and schools, and cut the number of community dogs by encouraging people to adopt strays.
On the last day of campaigning, the AAP on Friday attacked the BJP, saying people do not want a “corrupt” party like it to come to power in the civic body.
“The people of Delhi do not want a corrupt party like the BJP in the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi), but want an honest party, that’s why people are demanding the Kejriwal Model in the MCD,” the AAP said in a statement on Friday, even as Kejriwal, Sisodia, Delhi AAP convenor Gopal Rai, Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta, ministers Kailash Gahlot and Raaj Kumar Anand, Punjab Minister Sardar Harjot Bains, AAP leader Mahabal Mishra and MLA Durgesh Pathak led roadshows in the city’s in the party’s last push for the campaign.
The BJP, which in turn brought senior leaders including Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, his Uttarakhand counterpart Pushkar Singh Dhami, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and party president JP Nadda to campaign for its candidates, has pledged to bring all civic services under one cellphone app, apart from guaranteeing a “clean, green Delhi” with no landfills.
Addressing a roadshow in the city, Union minister Piyush Goyal targeted the Kejriwal government over allegations of corruption.
“The AAP government in Delhi has proved to be a complete failure when it comes to discharging responsibilities, and that is the reason why the BJP is getting the love and support of the people of the city,” he said. “Together, Kejriwal and his ministers have crossed the pinnacle of corruption and tarnished the image of India not only in the country but also abroad.”
The Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 years but has faded away since its loss in 2013, is seeking to regain lost turf.
According to a report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a few days ahead of the polls, the BJP has the highest number of millionaire candidates in the fray, followed by the AAP and the Congress.
Air pollution in Delhi and surround areas, which has become a major civic and health issue, was a major poll plank during the campaign.
Among other key issues was sanitation, roads and waterlogging, parking, revitalizing public spaces, and finances and corruption.
The last has been adding to the political tussle in the city, with AAP’S Satyendar Jain, the city’s former health minister, in jail over allegations of money laundering, and deputy CM Sisodia being a key accused in the probe against Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy.
The election commission on