MCD bypoll: BJP vows introspection, blames summer vacation, heat

The Bharatiya Janata Party blamed summer vacations and the rising temperature for the party’s performance in the municipal bypolls, results of which were announced on Tuesday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party blamed summer vacations and the rising temperature for the party’s performance in the municipal bypolls, results of which were announced on Tuesday.

Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay (second from left) with the party’s winning candidates on Tuesday. (Sonu Mehta/HT Photo)

The BJP, which currently rules all the three municipal corporations, managed to win only three seats from the 13 that went to polls. On the seat tally, the party stood third with the AAP and Congress winning 5 seats each.

Despite having the largest vote share, the party could not achieve much in terms of number of seats.

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“It is time to introspect. Our vote share has increased by 2% but we failed to convert it into seats. Summer vacation is going on and many government officials (who vote for us) are not in Delhi. Also, a lot of people didn’t come out to vote in our strongholds due to the heat,” Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay said.

Upadhyay said the people had shown confidence in the BJP by giving the maximum vote share of around 35% to it. “Definitely there is a slight disappointment over the number of seats won but it a matter of happiness that people of Delhi have convincingly distanced themselves from the politics of lies and arrogance practised by the Aam Aadmi Party,” he said.

On the Congress’ good performance, Upadhyay said the Congress is a “good opposition as they are not anarchist”.

Leader of the opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said, “The party will introspect. But the BJP is the most popular party with nearly 35 per cent vote share.”

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