New Delhi, 3 Dec

The BJP won seven wards and AAP three, while the Congress and the All India Forward Bloc emerged victorious in one ward each in the MCD bypolls for 12 wards.

These civic body bypolls were a litmus test for the BJP, as they were its first big electoral battle after coming to power in Delhi in February this year.

BJP's Suman Kumar Gupta defeated Aam Aadmi Party candidate Harsh Sharma by a margin of 1,182 votes.

The saffron party also comfortably won the Shalimar Bagh B ward, with Anita Jain defeating AAP's Babita Rana by a margin of over 10,000 votes.

The Shalimar Bagh B ward was vacated after sitting BJP councillor Rekha Gupta won the assembly polls in February and became Delhi's chief minister.

AAP won the Mundka and Dakshinpuri wards, while Congress's Suresh Choudhary won the Sangam Vihar A ward by defeating BJP's Subhajeet Gautam.

Choudhary polled 12,766 votes while his opponent managed to get 9,138 votes.  BJP's Veena Asija was locked in a close fight with AAP's Seema Goyal but surged ahead to win the Ashok Vihar ward by a margin of 405 votes.

All India Forward Bloc candidate Mohd Imran won the Chandni Mahal seat by defeating AAP's Mudassar Usman by a margin of 4,692 votes.

The BJP also won the Dichaon Kalan and Greater Kailash wards and the Dwarka-B ward, which was earlier held by its Kamaljeet Sehrawat. Sehrawat is now a BJP MP.

The saffron party's Manisha Rani won the Dwarka-B ward by a comfortable margin of 9,100 votes against AAP's Raj Bala. 

AAP's Rajan Arora won the Naraina seat by just 148 votes against the BJP's Chandrakanta Shivani. 

The counting of votes for the MCD bypolls to 12 wards began at 8am amid tight security.

Of the 12 wards where voting was held on 30 November, nine were earlier held by the BJP and the remaining by AAP.

The State Election Commission, Delhi, had set up 10 counting centres, one each at Kanjhawala, Pitampura, Bharat Nagar, Civil Lines, Rouse Avenue, Dwarka, Najafgarh, Gole Market, Pushp Vihar and Mandawali.

The strong rooms where the EVMs are stored after polling were secured with adequate security measures, including round-the-clock CCTV surveillance and the deployment of paramilitary and Delhi Police personnel.

The vote percentage in the bypolls was 38.51 per cent as compared to 50.47 per cent in the MCD elections held for 250 wards in 2022.