New Delhi, Mar 2 (PTI) As the Delhi civic polls near, talks of reunification of the city's three municipal corporations and funding by the Centre are doing the rounds of the BJP office here, party insiders said.

The State Election Commission, Delhi, has notified that the elections for 272 wards of North, South and East Delhi municipal corporations are scheduled in April.

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"A section of Delhi BJP leaders believe unifying the municipal corporations will help the party. This is being discussed informally so far. However, the issue is also under the knowledge of national leadership which may take some decision in this regard after results of the Assembly polls in five states are declared on March 10," said a senior Delhi BJP leader.

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However, another set of party leaders dismissed the talk of unification of the civic bodies as "speculation".

"This may be speculated by someone, but there is no such discussion in the official party fora," Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said.

In the last MCD polls in Delhi, the BJP had registered an impressive victory, returning to power in the three corporations by winning a total 181 of 272 wards.

The closest rival of the party, AAP managed to win only 49 wards, while the Congress won 31 wards in the elections.

The AAP, which defeated the BJP hands down in the Assembly polls in 2020, is leaving no stone unturned to come to power at the civic bodies.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has also been vocally challenging the BJP ahead of the MCD polls by frequently attacking it with allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the civic bodies.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)