New Delhi: After tight fights, AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia lost from the New Delhi and Jangpura Assembly constituencies respectively, on a day which saw the ruling party’s rout in the city.
Talking to mediapersons, Sisodia congratulated Tarvinder Singh Marwah of the BJP and conceded defeat. In the last round of counting, Sisodia was trailing by 572 votes.
After beating Kejriwal, BJP’s Parvesh Verma spoke to Home Minister Amit Shah over the phone. His victory margin over Kejriwal was almost equal to the nearly 3,000 votes garnered by Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit.
The BJP leaders remained tightlipped about its Chief Ministerial candidate after the party achieved a majority with over 45 seats in a 70-member Assembly which has 36 as the majority mark.
Sisodia, described as the brain behind the AAP’s education revolution, had shifted to the Jangpura seat from Patparganj from where he had won the 2020 election.
Earlier, as the Election Commission trends indicated a BJP majority in the Delhi Assembly elections on Saturday, a pall of gloom descended over the AAP’s office while celebrations broke out at the BJP headquarters.
Other AAP leaders Satyendar Jain and Saurabh Bharadwaj were also trailing.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Atishi exuded confidence in the AAP’s return to power and called the election a battle between good and evil, while Bharadwaj predicted that the AAP would win at least 40-45 seats.
Reacting to the trends, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said: “We can see the blessings of the people of Delhi. We are confident that the tally will remain the same till the end.”
An off-shoot of an anti-corruption campaign of Anna Hazare in 2011, ‘Brand Kejriwal’ proved to be fourth time unlucky after winning three successive Delhi Assembly elections.
The AAP’s fourth attempt at capturing the ‘Dilli Darbar’ failed amid a strong anti-incumbency, poor performance of MLAs, and the party chief’s growing faith in turncoats from other parties.
(IANS)
