The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has declared that it will not participate in the April 25 mayoral election of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), citing a systematic denial of fair electoral opportunity. Pointing to the BJP’s orchestration of an undemocratic power grab, AAP Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj threw down the gauntlet, telling the BJP to form its “triple-engine” government and shoulder full responsibility for Delhi’s civic crisis. From garbage mountains to water shortages, law and order breakdowns to chemical leaks, Saurabh Bharadwaj said every unfulfilled promise will now be the BJP’s burden—and within a month, its failure will be evident to all.
Addressing a press conference alongside Delhi Assembly LoP Atishi, AAP Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “The BJP’s desperation to hold on to power in Delhi has been evident for years. Back in 2022—perhaps on 9th March—the Election Commission had announced that the MCD elections would be declared at 5 PM. But just before the announcement, the central government and the LG intervened to stop the State Election Commission’s press conference. They told them not to conduct the elections just yet, saying delimitation was to be done, the three MCDs would be merged into one, and elections would be held after six to eighteen months.”
He said the reason for this delay was crystal clear–the BJP was on track for a crushing defeat in the MCD elections. People were eager to vote for the AAP. The entire process was delayed to save the BJP from certain loss. Finally, the elections were conducted on December 4.”
Calling the delimitation exercise a blatant manipulation, he said, “Each and every ward was carved with the BJP’s advantage in mind. Take the Greater Kailash Vidhan Sabha for instance—if there was a GK ward whose BJP councillor wasn’t being allowed to enter Shahpur Jat village due to public anger, then that village was simply removed from the ward and shifted into another. This was done to ensure BJP could somehow win there.”
The AAP Delhi State President added that this pattern was repeated across the city. He said, “Wherever the AAP had strong support, all those areas were lumped together into a single, oversized ward. The idea was to dump all AAP voters into one place. Meanwhile, BJP-leaning areas were broken into smaller wards, so BJP could win more seats on paper, even if they had fewer votes overall. This was a completely corrupt exercise of delimitation done by the central government.”
Even after this biased delimitation, the people of Delhi gave their verdict in favour of AAP. Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “Despite all this tampering, when elections were finally held in December, AAP won 134 seats, while BJP got only 104.”
He recalled the chaos that followed in the Mayor and Standing Committee elections, stating, “We all saw the desperation. The current CM, Rekha Gupta, was seen breaking the mic. Slogans were shouted, there were physical attacks on the Mayor candidate. It was absolute goondaism on display. Even the Supreme Court later had to say that the BJP cannot forcibly get its Aldermen to vote. The BJP was completely exposed before the nation.”
Speaking about BJP’s continued efforts to poach AAP councillors, Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “Since then, we’ve seen a constant attempt by the BJP to poach our councillors using every possible tactic—money, threats, pressure, false promises. They are trying everything—sama, daam, dand, bhed—to bring AAP councillors into their party.”
Explaining AAP’s decision regarding the upcoming Mayor election, the Delhi State President stated, “This time, we’ve made a decision—not to field a candidate for Mayor from Aam Aadmi Party. Let the BJP form its Mayor. Let them create their own Standing Committee.”
Saurabh Bharadwaj asserted, “They (BJP) should now run Delhi without excuses. Call it a three-engine government, or four-engine if you count the LG as the fourth—who sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. But altogether, it’s their sarkar now. Let them show the people of Delhi what they can actually do.”
Meanwhile, Delhi Assembly LoP Atishi explained BJP’s pattern of undemocratic backdoor tactics post-election defeats. She stated, “Wherever the BJP loses elections across the country, they try to form governments through ‘saam-daam-dand-bhed’ — by using fear, intimidation, or lure, through the backdoor. We’ve seen this happen repeatedly under Operation Lotus — be it in Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, or Maharashtra — the BJP breaks other parties and forms governments.”
Highlighting how BJP manipulated MCD structure post-defeat, she said, “In Delhi too, after suffering a crushing defeat in the MCD elections, BJP brought in a Bill in Parliament to reunify the MCD. The only actual change in this reunification was a reduction of wards from 272 to 250. There were no other changes. But the intent was clear — to delay the elections, and to carry out a delimitation exercise to carve out wards in BJP’s favour.”
Atishi called out the timing of MCD elections with Gujarat polls, asserting, “The MCD elections were deliberately scheduled on the same dates as the Gujarat elections. Why? Because the Aam Aadmi Party was contesting both. The aim was to divert AAP’s resources and strength. And yet, the Aam Aadmi Party won a majority in the MCD.”
Recounting BJP’s failed attempts to manipulate mayoral polls, she added, “BJP tried everything — from conducting the mayoral election wrongly to illegally allowing aldermen to vote. But none of their efforts succeeded. Even after losing, for the last two and a half years, BJP has relentlessly tried to pressure, intimidate and break AAP councillors, one by one, to poach them.”
The Delhi Assembly LoP affirmed AAP’s commitment to clean politics, stating, “The Aam Aadmi Party does not engage in this kind of politics. We respect the people’s mandate in Delhi. We honour the trust placed in us by those who elected us. We don’t believe in buying or selling MLAs or councillors.”
She announced that AAP will not contest the mayoral election, stating, “After engineering defections, BJP now has a majority in the MCD House. That is why the Aam Aadmi Party will not contest the mayoral election. Because the only way to win it now would be to break and buy councillors — and we do not believe in such politics.”
Atishi urged BJP to deliver on promises using their ‘triple-engine’ power, stating, “We now want the BJP to run its own government in MCD, just like they do in Delhi and at the Centre. They are getting a chance to have a ‘triple-engine’ government. It is their responsibility now — whether it’s law and order, electricity, water, schools, hospitals, or sanitation — they must fulfil the promises made to the people of Delhi.”
Pointing out to BJP’s past excuses for MCD failures, the Delhi Assembly LoP stated, “In recent months, we’ve seen BJP ministers, like Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, make daily excuses blaming AAP’s MCD for rising pollution, falsely alleging that we are intentionally burning waste. But now, BJP has no excuses left. They have full power — and now the responsibility to deliver.”
Atishi reaffirmed AAP’s role as a strong opposition. She said, “Just like we play the role of a strong opposition in the Delhi Assembly, we will play that role in the MCD as well. We will hold the BJP accountable for every promise they made to the people of Delhi.”
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