After Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) decided to contest the April 23 Delhi municipal election despite the humiliating defeat in the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, the Delhi municipal polls is set to see an unprecedented six-cornered clash.
BSP has already declared 70 candidates. It will contest against BJP, AAP, Congress and Yogendra Yadav’s Swaraj India on all 272 municipal wards of the city-state. Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) is will fight for at least 150 seats.
Only BJP, BSP and Congress had contested on all the seats in the last municipal elections. Samajwadi Party was the next largest party when it comes to candidates with 107 candidates in fray.
Apart from that Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Uddhav Thakrey’s Shiv Sena fought on 23, 21 and 16 seats respectively. Other parties such as Lok Jan Shakti Party, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party, Nationalist Congress Party, and Communist Party of India had also challenged on less than 100 seats.
“Whatever may have happened in the UP elections, in Delhi, we will contest with full strength,” said BSP’s Delhi president, C P Singh.
BSP was the key player in the capital and was the third main contender after BJP and Congress. It had won 15 seats in the last municipal elections in 2012 with over 10 per cent vote-share.
