"Even their own councillors will not vote for them": BJP's Harsh Malhotra mocks AAP for not contesting MCD Mayor polls

New Delhi [India], April 21 (ANI): Claiming that there is a growing discontent within the Aam Aadmi Party ranks, Union Minister Harsh Malhotra on Monday said that "internal rifts" and "misgovernance" led to the Arvind Kejriwal-led party's failure to field a candidate for the upcoming Delhi mayoral elections.
Speaking to ANI, Malhotra asserted that several AAP councillors have switched allegiance to the BJP and that the party leadership's failures have left its representatives disillusioned.
"AAP's own public representatives, more than a dozen of its councillors, joined the BJP during the Delhi Assembly elections. There is a lot of tension within their party, and their councillors are feeling suffocated because of the misgovernance of their leadership, and that is why they did not field a mayoral candidate because even their own councillors will not vote for them," the Union Minister said.
BJP MP Kamaljeet Sehrawat also targeted the Aam Aadmi Party, claiming that the numbers to win the Mayoral elections are in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"This statement of Saurabh Bharadwaj is worth laughing at. He should try fielding a candidate when the numbers are in favour of the BJP; 10 MLAs have joined the BJP, and the number required for the mayor is clearly in favour of the BJP. So even if he had fielded a candidate, the victory of the BJP candidate is certain. The Kejriwal government could not fulfil any of the promises it made. When the BJP government is formed, I assure the public that the Corporation, Delhi government and BJP MPs will together solve their problems," Sehrawat said.
Earlier today, Aam Aadmi Party's Delhi convenor, Saurabh Bharadwaj, stated that his party will not field a candidate in the Mayor's elections this time. The Aam Aadmi Party has decided to abstain from the mayoral polls, saying that the BJP should "rule Delhi without any excuses."
The Bharatiya Janata Party has announced that Sardar Raja Iqbal Singh will be the party's mayoral candidate for the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi's annual election.
The elections for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) are scheduled for April 25, with nominations for candidates open now. Currently, AAP controls the mayoral post, as Mayor Mahesh Kumar Khinchi won the election in November 2024 by just three votes.
The three civic bodies, East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), were re-unified into a single entity on May 22, 2022, as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. (ANI)