NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday announced it will not contest the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) mayoral elections, saying the move is aimed at giving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “another opportunity” to govern the capital and be held fully accountable.
Delhi AAP president Saurabh Bharadwaj said the party would sit in opposition and expose what he described as BJP’s failed “four-engine” governance model. He reiterated that AAP had taken a similar decision last year to ensure the BJP could not shift blame for civic issues.
He said that despite controlling multiple arms of governance, including the Centre, L-G’s office, and MCD, BJP has been unable to deliver results. “With all four engines, it is clear that BJP does not know how to run the city,” he said, adding that “only Arvind Kejriwal can run Delhi”.
The AAP leader alleged that civic problems persisted across departments, including the Public Works Department, the Flood Control Department, and the MCD, all of which he said saw widespread failures last year. With the mayoral polls approaching, the political contest in Delhi is expected to intensify, particularly around civic governance issues such as drainage, infrastructure, and monsoon preparedness.
In the 250-member MCD House, BJP has a comfortable majority of 123 councillors. There are 101 AAP councillors, and the remaining include the Indraprastha Vikas Party, a splinter group separated from AAP; Congress; and independents.
MCD will hold mayoral elections on April 29. An official notification is likely to be issued on April 15 in this regard. The last date for filing nominations is April 23. Officials had earlier said elections for the deputy mayor and three vacant seats in the standing committee would also be conducted on April 29.
The Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva stated that Bharadwaj’s statement about not contesting the mayor’s election is ridiculous. He said the reality is that everyone knows AAP has already lost its majority in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi due to several councillors leaving the party, followed by internal division.
This fragmentation continues even today, and if the AAP contests the mayor’s election, more councillors may express their dissatisfaction.