21 candidates withdraw nominations on first day, 1395 still in play

With the nomination scrutiny process for the MCD elections now complete, the State Election Commission has initiated the process allowing the candidates to withdraw their nominations

With the nomination scrutiny process for the MCD elections now complete, the State Election Commission has initiated the process allowing the candidates to withdraw their nominations. On Friday, which was the first day for nomination withdrawal period, twenty-one candidates mostly belonging to smaller parties like Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India, Janata Dal United among others withdrew their nominations bringing the overall candidate count to less than 1400 mark. A state election commission official said that 1416 candidates had cleared the nomination scrutiny process out of which 21 have withdrawn their papers on Friday.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia with AAP candidates, ahead of filing nominations for MCD elections on November 13. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

“As of now, there are 1395 candidates in fray for municipal polls and they can still withdraw their nominations till November 19, 2022,” official explained.

The twenty one candidates that have withdrawn their candidature are from wards including Narela, Holambi Kalan, Samaypur Badli, Budh Vihar, Bawana, Nangal Thakran, Nihal Vihar under North Delhi; Hari Nagar, Vikas Puri, Lado Rai, Said-ul-Ajaib, Deoli and Madanpur Khadar under South Delhi region. The East Delhi region wards which have seen candidature withdrawal include IP Extension, Vishwas Nagar, Shahadra, Jhilmil Yamuna Vihar and Nehru Vihar, the state election commission report states.

Among the candidates that have withdrawn their candidature, according to the state election commission report include the former standing committee chairman of South Delhi Municipal Corporation Rajdutt Gahlot who had filed his candidature as an independent candidate. He was expected to cause damage to the prospects of the BJP candidates from Kakrola ward. Earlier in the day, Gahlot told HT that there is immense party pressure on him but he won’t withdraw his nominations. “I want to ask my party why I was denied a ticket. I was among the best performing councillors among south Delhi municipal councillors and as a standing committee chairman, I have initiated several development projects in the Najafgarh area,” he added.

A much more direct contest

With less than 1400 candidates in fray, the 2022 municipal elections are expected to be a much more direct contest between the Aam Admi Party and BJP.

In 2017 MCD elections, 2,800 candidates participated. The ward wise distribution of the candidates shows that the number contestants in each ward varies between 3 to 13 candidates. Out of 250 municipal wards, 24 wards will have 3 contestants, 53 wards will have 4 contestants, 59 wards will have 5 contestants, 43 wards will feature 6 contestants while 34 will see ballot papers of 7 candidates in the electronic voting machines.

In the previous sets of municipal elections, the candidates from smaller parties and independents have managed to carve out significant vote share in civic polls. If we consider the cumulative average of voter-share in the East, North and South MCD in 2017 municipal elections, BJP had managed to get 36.28% vote share, AAP 25.92% and Congress managed 21.40%. Meanwhile, the Bahujan Samaj party had 4.6% votes, other smaller parties got 3%, independents had secured 8.11% votes.