Delhi civic body by-poll elections in five wards concluded with four seats for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), one seat for the Indian National Congress and none for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The voting was held in two North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) wards, Rohini-C and Shalimar Bagh (North) and three East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) wards, Trilokpuri, Kalyanpuri and Chauhan Banger, on February 28. The voter turnout was 50.86 percent.

AAP retained Kalyanpuri and Trilokpuri seats and won the Rohini C voting. The latter seat was previously won by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) but was vacated when its councillor won an MLA election on an AAP ticket. Meanwhile, AAP also won the Shalimar Bagh ward, previously held by BJP.

Dhirender Kumar won the Kalyanpuri ward by 7,043 votes. Vijay Kumar who won the Trilokpuri seat defeated BJP’s Om Prakash by 4,986 votes and Sunita Mishra defeated BJP’s Surbhi Jaju in Shalimar Bagh ward by 2,705 votes. Ram Chander defeated BJP candidate Rakesh Goyal by 2,985 votes in Rohini C. Interestingly, Congress candidate Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad defeated AAP’s Mohammad Ishraq Khan by 10,642 votes for the Chauhan Banger seat.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia congratulated party workers for the victory and said people were fed up with BJP and would bring in AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s politics of honesty next year.

On the other hand, BJP Delhi Chief Adesh Gupta said there was enough time for the party to improve its performance before the 2022 municipal polls. He said the party would introspect on the losses, especially the loss of the Shalimar Bagh seat that was “disheartening”.

Related:

Farmers focus on assembly election stating “govt only understands votes”
Battleground Bengal: Is BJP’s Poriborton Yatra failing to take off?
Polling dates announced for 4 states and one union territory
SC issues notice in plea seeking caste-based census in 2021

The post Delhi MCD by polls: AAP wins four seats, BJP none! appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image Courtesy: firstpost

The CPI (M)-led LDF triumphed in Kerala’s Pala constituency, taking over the Assembly seat from the Opposition Congress-led UDF. Mani C Kappan, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won with a margin of 2,943 votes defeating his rival Jose Tom Pulikkunel, an independent candidate led by the Congress- led United Democratic Front (UDF).

Kappan received 54,137 votes while Pulikkunel received 51,194 votes. NDA candidate N Hari received only 1,804 votes.

Pala was earlier represented by veteran Kerala Congress leader and former Finance Minister KM Mani for 54 years till his death in April 2019. The last time the LDF witnessed victory in Pala was in 1980 when their candidate was KC(M) founder KM Mani, who had switched over to the LDF in the wake of the political rumbling over the Emergency.

The by-poll victory comes as a huge relief and morale booster to the LDF after its poor show in the national elections. It had won only one of the 20 parliamentary seats (Alapuzha) in the State where the Left had been traditionally strong.

What Analysts Say

Analysts feel that infighting within the Kerala Congress party affected the outcome.

NP Chekutty, a left-leaning political observer, said that the LDF had lost heavily in the Lok Sabha election due to consolidation of minority votes in favour of the UDF over the candidature of former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad. The hasty move by the LDF government to implement the SC verdict on the entry of women between the age of 10 and 50 in the Sabarimala temple also was a factor in their loss, he observed.

“The minorities had rallied behind the Congress believing that it was in a better position to fight the Hindutva forces nationally. However, the decline of the party at the national level has shaken their trust. The result in Pala could be seen as a sign of the minorities swinging back to the LDF, which is politically and ideologically strong to take on the BJP and the RSS,” he said.

J Prabhash, an analyst, said, “This shows that people think differently when it comes to Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The infighting within the Kerala Congress also perhaps played a role as some people may have stayed from voting. The by-election saw 6% less polling compared to the number of voters in the 2016 Assembly elections.”

What the Win means for LDF

The results have put the UDF on a backfoot in the wake of the upcoming by-elections in five more assembly constituencies on October 21^st.

The by-poll was viewed as an acid test for the LDF, UDF and BJP led NDA as a victory would’ve given these three major combines a boost in the upcoming by-elections.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, “The by-poll victory will give strength to the LDF government to carry out its development works, as well as welfare activities more vigorously.”

This surprise win will give the LDF to carry forward its party’s social and economic agenda in the State.
 

The post Rare by-poll win: LDF wrests Pala from Congress-led UDF: Kerala appeared first on SabrangIndia.