Is the MCD election a semi- final to upcoming assembly elections? The answer depends on whom you are posing the question to. If one were to go by past results, there seems to be no connection between the municipal and assembly elections. The BJP looks like it is well on its way to winning the MCD for the second time in a row, but the Congress has been ruling the Delhi assembly for more than two decades now. The BJP says that national issues influenced MCD elections

This gives the impression that while local issues such as parking, street lighting, garbage heaps and potholes dominate the municipal elections, assembly elections are about the big picture.

In the current election however, the BJP repeatedly mentioned issues that dominated the national scenario.

While campaigning and even when the results start pouring in, the party maintained that the results were actually Delhi’s referendum against Congress, and that citizens of Delhi had rejected Congress as it had got exposed in the form of various scams. “This is a trailer of the 2013 battle. We are sure that the trend would continue,” Delhi BJP president Vijendra Gupta told Firstpost, referring to the assembly polls due next year.

Congress, on the other hand, maintained that there was no reason to believe that national factors had influenced the municipal elections this time around. The party also alleged that the BJP was resorting to negative publicity to divert focus away from corruption in the MCD.

But the BJP claims that lines were getting blurred as the Commonwealth Games, 2G scam and Adarsh fiasco have all dented the Congress’ image and would certainly impact voting in the MCD elections.

“The fact that 55 per of voters cast their ballet shows that it is more or less equal to assembly elections,” said Anil Bairwal, national coordinator, Association for Democratic Reforms. “But voters’ memory is short. We are one year away from assembly polls and there might be some developments which completely change the equation by the time of assembly polls,” he added.