AAP Confident Despite Defections in MCD Elections

Aam Aadmi Party is confident that after having five AAP councillors switch allegiance just days before the elections, it would win the Municipal Corporation of Delhi standing committee elections. The move is caused by political machinations as well as interventions by the Supreme Court which gave the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi more powers over MCD than previously agreed. However, Sanjay Singh, Rajya Sabha member of AAP, snubs what the defectors have done. While the member may be playing public relations, defectors seem to be making empty enemies which in the long-run may push them into political oblivion.

Ram Chander, Pawan Kumar, Manju Devi, Sugandha Hinga Maggu, and Mamta are the five councillors who have defected to the BJP. Their movements have added the number of councillors who owe allegiance to this part, enhancing the party’s chances in the MCD standing committee elections. I am neither convinced that the BJP will have a seamless victory nor that the zonal elections will have negligible connotations. The raging MCD politics will affect the outcome and configure the electoral politics in the metropolis and the region.

While the BJP says that the AAP has lost its political balance, sources in AAP have reduced the defections to immediate zonal intrigues. The defectors made a grand entry during a BJP event which was attended by BJP-appointed Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal of Delhi. Supreme Court ruled that the L-G of Delhi has powers over MCD than AAP-controlled Delhi’s government despite the provision of DMC Act and NDMC Act which state that councils have to take a council of the chief minister over all political decisions. The voters in these areas will have to decide between the three political formations. MCD is holding elections for 27 of the duration in which ward committees will have been formed by September 20, 2021. The meeting configuration of MCD that harbors the standing committee will have come into place. The betting is whether the BJP through the defectors will have formed the majority in the standing committee. This elections strategy has turned interesting.