On Sunday (December 11), the President of the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Adesh Gupta, tendered his resignation following the party’s loss at the MCD elections. Adesh Gupta said that he took the decision to resign taking moral responsibility for the defeat in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections.
As per reports, the party has accepted the resignation of Gupta and elevated BJP leader Virendra Sachdeva to the post of acting President of the Delhi unit. Sachdeva had earlier held the post of the Vice-President of Delhi BJP.
While speaking about the development to The Times of India (TOI), Adesh Gupta remarked, “Taking the responsibility of defeat in the MCD, I have given my resignation to the national president. It has been accepted.”
He further added, “We put up a good fight, our vote percentage has increased…yes it is true that we missed the victory by a small margin.” The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has 250 wards, and 1,349 candidates contested the election.
“The party did not get the expected results in the MCD elections. Taking moral responsibility for the defeat, I have resigned from the post of Delhi BJP president,” Adesh Gupta told ANI. He said that he had sent the resignation yesterday and it was accepted today by the party. Talking about the defeat, he said that they will have to do an analysis of where their shortcomings were.
It must be mentioned that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged victorious in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls, bagging 134 seats and ending the 15-year hold of the BJP.
The BJP won 104 seats while the Congress managed to get only 9 seats. A total of 3 independent candidates also won the elections. According to TOI, several factions within the Delhi BJP had raised the demand for change in party leadership.
A BJP leader told the English daily, “There have been three polls in the past two years. One bypoll of MCDs, second one Rajinder Nagar bypoll of Vidhan Sabha and the third was the MCD poll. The party has lost all of them.”