MCD Election 2017: Setback to BJP as AAP, BJP bag one seat each in bypolls to two wards

The Congress bagged one seat and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) another in the bypoll to two municipal wards in Delhi, the State Election Commission (SEC) said on Tuesday. The bypoll results comes as a setback for the ruling BJP, as the saffron party had swept the 2017 MCD election winning 184 out of the 270 seats. AAP, which is in power in the Delhi Assembly, could only win 46 seats. The Congress, which ruled the city-state between 1998 and 2013, could only bag 30 seats. [caption id=“attachment_3471822” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Mukesh Goel of Congress won the bypoll to Sarai Pipal Thala ward in North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and AAP’s Reshma Maujpur ward of East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), the SEC said. While Congress candidate Goel won the Sarai Pipal Thala bypoll, defeating his BJP rival Mangat Ram Sharma by by a margin of 2,744 votes. In the Maujpur bypoll, AAP candidate Reshma narrowly defeated Congress candidate Rekha Sharma by a margin of 699 votes. The bypoll to Sarai Pipal Thala ward took place on 21 May, while the Maujpur bypoll was held on on 14 May. In both wards, the polling had to be cancelled following the deaths of the Samajwadi Party candidates Dinesh Singh and Naseema respectively. With inputs from PTI