BJP heads to victory in Delhi civic polls

Bharatiya Janata Party was surging ahead in all the three municipal corporations of Delhi leaving the Congress behind as counting of votes progressed for the polls held two days ago.

Of the 17 results declared by the State Election Commission so far, BJP has bagged 16 wards in all the three corporations while Congress has won one seat.

As per the trends available, BJP is leading in 131 wards out of the total 272 wards while Congress is ahead in 66 seats. Others, including BSP, is ahead 54 seats.

In South Delhi Corporation, BJP has won or is leading in as many as 41 out of the 104 wards while Congress was ahead in 29 seats. Interestingly, others are leading in 32 seats.

BJP has won or leading in 30 seats in East Delhi Corporation, which has 64 wards, while Congress is ahead in 11 seats.

In North Delhi Corporation, which has 104 seats, BJP is ahead in 60 seats while Congress is ahead in 26 seats.

The counting is taking place in 33 centres across the city. Polling was held on Sunday in which 55 per cent of the 1.15 crore voters exercised their franchise.

The first result to be declared was that of Shahdara (SC) in East Corporation where BJP's Balbir Singh defeated Congress' Jagdish by a margin of 1,28 votes. Singh polled 6,809 votes while his nearest rival got 5,571 votes.

BJP's Subhash Arya, the Leader of undivided MCD House, trumped his rival from Congress Manmohan Singh Kochar.

Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta's wife Shobha has won in Rohini Central defeating her Congress rival Dr Monica Puri.

Stakes are high for both the national parties in the municipal polls, considered as a semi final ahead of the assembly elections next year.

In the 2007 polls to the undivided Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), BJP had bagged 36.17 per cent of the around 42.35 lakh votes polled while Congress got 29.17 per cent. BSP's vote share was 9.87 per cent.

BJP, which has 164 councillors in the undivided MCD against Congress' 67 and BSP's 17.