AHMEDABAD: Amid reactions to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election results, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal said the BJP’s failure to cross the majority mark showed that people were against the party.
Speaking to reporters in Ahmedabad, Kejriwal said, "Despite facilitating such discrepancies, they (BJP) could not touch the majority mark. So, this clearly shows that the public is against them, but they misuse machinery."
Kejriwal, who is on a three-day visit to Gujarat, also targeted the BJP over its long rule in the state. He alleged that the party had damaged governance over the past three decades.
"For the last 30 years, the BJP has been ruling Gujarat. In these 30 years, the BJP pushed Gujarat into a ditch. There is fear and corruption everywhere. They scare and threaten people who raise their voices against them, against injustice; they are jailed. They do corruption openly. Nobody can raise a voice against their corruption," he said.
The AAP leader said his party was gaining support across Gujarat despite limited resources.
"People are looking at AAP with great hope. In the last 6-7 months, AAP has been conducting rallies across the entire state of Gujarat. People are turning up in large numbers. We don't even have money; ours is a poor party. But people are coming to AAP rallies at their own expense...I am here on a 3-day visit. I will speak with volunteers and form a strategy," he added.
Meanwhile, the BJP–Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) alliance emerged as the single largest bloc in the BMC elections, though it fell short of a majority on its own. The Shiv Sena (UBT)–Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) alliance also secured a substantial share of seats and votes across Mumbai.
According to official figures released by the State Election Commission and the BMC, the BJP won 89 seats with 11,79,273 votes, accounting for 21.58 per cent of the total votes cast. Among all winning candidates, the BJP’s vote share stood at 45.22 per cent, making it the single largest party in the civic body. Its alliance partner, the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), won 29 seats with 2,73,326 votes, translating into a five per cent vote share.
Together, the BJP–Shiv Sena (Shinde) alliance emerged as the largest bloc in the 227-member civic body.
On the other side, the Shiv Sena (UBT), contesting in alliance with the MNS, won 65 seats. The UBT-led Sena polled 7,17,736 votes, or 13.13 per cent of the total votes cast, while the MNS secured six seats with 74,946 votes, amounting to a 1.37 per cent vote share.
The Indian National Congress won 24 seats with 2,42,646 votes, representing 4.44 per cent of the total vote share.
Among other parties, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen won eight seats with 68,072 votes. The Nationalist Congress Party secured three seats, the Samajwadi Party won two, and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) won one seat.
Overall, candidates from recognised political parties polled 26,07,612 votes, accounting for 47.72 per cent of the total votes cast. The total number of votes polled stood at 54,64,412, while 11,677 voters opted for NOTA.
While Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray sought to consolidate votes around the Marathi language and the revival of the Marathi manoos identity plank, the BJP-led saffron alliance highlighted its development work, including the Metro Aqua Line and the Coastal Road, which helped it gain an edge in the civic polls.