A total of 784 candidates, who were in the fray in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election, lost their security deposit after the results were announced on Wednesday, according to the State Election Commission (SEC).

A total of 1,349 candidates were in the fray in the high-stakes polls. According to the State Election Commission, these include 188 from Congress, 10 from BJP and 3 from AAP, 128 from BSP, 13 from the AIMIM, 22 from JDU, and 25 from NCP among others.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the MCD polls with 134 of the total 250 wards in the national capital’s civic body polls, uprooting the 15-year rule by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

As the Delhi State Election Commission announced the final results today, AAP won 134 wards while BJP came second with 104 wards. Congress managed to get 9 wards while three wards were bagged by Independents.

The polls for 250 wards in the national capital were held on December 4 with about 50 per cent voter turnout and a total of 1,349 candidates were in the fray. However, the low voter turnout did not prove to be an indicator of pro-incumbency.

Congress, which is mostly focussing on the success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, was not predicted (in the exit polls) to be a prominent challenger in the recently conducted polling.

AAP national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday thanked the people for AAP’s victory in the MCD polls and sought the cooperation of the BJP and the Congress as well as the “blessings” of the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve civic amenities in the national capital.

Kejriwal batted for positive politics in the country to ensure that India becomes the number one country in the world.

“We all have to improve the condition of Delhi and I need the cooperation of all, including the BJP and Congress. We need the cooperation of all, especially the help and blessings of the Centre and the Prime Minister to do so,” Kejriwal said in his victory speech at AAP headquarters on Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Marg.

Senior leaders of the party including Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia took on the BJP over a number of issues and highlighted the MCD’s failure in keeping the city clean, while also accusing it of indulging in corruption.

However, as the AAP manages to dethrone the BJP from power in the civic body, the deadlock between the Delhi government and the MCD is expected to melt down.

BJP and AAP left no stone unturned during the campaign as both the parties levelled accusations and counter-accusations at each other on various issues besides BJP deploying union ministers and chief ministers too for campaigning.

The high-stakes civic polls were largely seen as a two-way contest between the BJP and AAP.

This was the first civic election after the fresh delimitation exercise. There were 272 wards in Delhi and three corporations – NDMC, SDMC, and EDMC in Delhi from 2012-2022 – that later reunified into one MCD that formally came into existence on May 22.