Three AAP Councillors join BJP, boost its chances in Mayoral poll

AAP Councilors joining the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi on February 15, 2025. Photo: X/@BJP4Delhi

Three AAP Councillors switched over to the BJP on Saturday (February 15, 2025), boosting its chances of victory in the upcoming MCD mayoral poll.

Welcoming the Councillors, city BJP president said Delhi will have a “triple engine” government — at the Centre, assembly and municipal level — at the right time to develop it as the capital of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision under a ‘Viksit Bharat”.

The three Councillors are Anita Basoya (Andrews Ganj), Nikhil Chaprana (Hari Nagar) and Dharamvir (R K Puram).

Mr. Sachdeva said the Councillors joined the BJP to make Delhi a clean and beautiful city.

In the wake of its recent resounding victory in the Assembly polls, the BJP is eyeing a “triple-engine government” in Delhi by securing the post of mayor. The BJP won 48 of the 70 Assembly seats, ousting the AAP from power after a decade.

The mayoral election is scheduled to be held in April. The AAP had won the last mayoral election, held in November 2024, by three votes.

Besides the Councillors, the seven Lok Sabha MPs (all of BJP), three Rajya Sabha MPs (all of AAP) and 14 nominated MLAs in Delhi are voters in the polls for Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

With the joining of the three Councillors, the BJP tally is now higher than that of the AAP.

The BJP is also going to have 10 of its MLAs nominated to the MCD, while the AAP will have four nominations for the civic body, said BJP leaders.

In the February 5 Assembly polls, eight BJP Councillors and three AAP Councillors got elected to the Assembly.

In the 2022 MCD polls, the AAP had won 134 wards, the BJP 104, the Congress nine and Independents three.