New Delhi: Two days after the MCD poll results, the defeated BJP camp appeared to be in a realistic mood on Friday, a kind of retreat from the mounting case for electing the party councillor as mayor.
The top MCD position "belongs to AAP as the mandate is in their favour," according to state BJP president Adesh Gupta.
According to the Delhi BJP, it will act as a "strong opposition in the local body." Up until yesterday, the BJP camp was dominated by the idea that the party would not think twice about securing the backing of any councillor in order to maintain the top position. Many party leaders used the fact that the MCD rulebook did not have anti-defection legislation to support their assumption that councillors would eventually accept the party mayor, NIE reported.
The AAP camp smiled once again after the saffron U-turn. Durgesh Pathak, a Delhi MLA and MCD in charge of the AAP, praised the BJP for their decision. "The mandate is in AAP's favour. The BJP has to sit in opposition. They should be a constructive opposition in MCD," said Pathak.
On Friday, Gupta was circumspect. "The BJP will serve the people of Delhi by becoming a strong opposition and will expose corruption linked to AAP in the corporation in the way they did in the Delhi government," he said.
In the MCD elections, he alleged that Congress was engaging in a "friendly match" with the AAP. According to Gupta, the BJP increased their electoral vote share by 3% from the elections of 2017 to 2018.
"We had a 36.08% vote share. This time, it has increased to 39.09%," he said.
He said CM Kejriwal and AAP stood "exposed" due to JP's anti-corruption campaign. "People have rejected AAP candidates in the assembly segment of Manish Sisodia. The situation was just the same in the assembly constituency of incarcerated Delhi minister Satyendar Jain," he said.
BJP officials noted that in many seats the party won by a tiny margin. He thanked Delhi's residents for their admiration for the hard work and commitment the party had put into their services. "Compared to the last time, the only visible change is that the Congress has bowed before the AAP," said a BJP leader.