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1st LD Writethru: India's ruling BJP wins civic body polls in Delhi

Xinhua, April 26, 2017 Adjust font size:

India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday won the civic body polls in Delhi, decimating the national capital's ruling anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the country's main opposition Congress party.

The BJP has retained by huge margins all the three municipal corporations in Delhi -- Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) North, MCD South and MCD East -- for which elections were held Sunday. AAP has come second in the polls, while the Congress a distant third.

"I thank Delhi's voters for the BJP's win. The people of Delhi have rejected negative politics, the politics of excuses," BJP chief Amit Shah told the media.

However, AAP has indicated that manipulation in electronic voting machines (EVM) led to its rout in the civic polls, while Congress' Delhi chief and former minister Ajay Maken has resigned.

"EVMs were rigged to help the BJP win the MCD elections," said AAP's Delhi Minister Gopal Rai. And Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia added, "BJP's win was impossible without EVM tampering."

Maken, on the other hand, said he was quitting as the Congress' Delhi chief and would not hold any party post for a year. "The Congress was the day's big gainer on vote share, but I had expected that we would do better," he said.

Experts say the BJP, which has been ruling the MCD for a decade, managed to retain control by beating anti-incumbency and despite being reduced to just three seats in the Delhi assembly polls in 2015, while AAP has lost its sheen. Endit