New Delhi, April 13 (IANS) The BJP on Thursday won Delhi's Rajouri Garden assembly by-poll with a margin of over 14,000 votes, pushing Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to a humiliating third spot.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Manjinder Singh Sirsa defeated his nearest rival Meenakshi Chandela of the Congress with 14,652 votes. With Sirsa's win, the BJP will now have four MLAs in the 70-seat Delhi assembly.
After the final 17th round of counting, the Election Commission (EC) declared that Sirsa polled 40,602 votes, Chandela 25,950 and the AAP's Harjeet Singh 10,243 out of a total 78,091 votes cast during election on April 9. Nearly 1,300 votes were divided among the other contestants.
The AAP fared so badly at the by-poll that its candidate Harjeet Singh could not even save his deposit. To save his deposit, Singh should have got least 1/6th of the votes polled.
The seat had fallen vacant after AAP's legislator Jarnail Singh resigned to contest the Punjab assembly polls on February 4 this year. Sirsa had won this seat in 2013 assembly polls, too, but had lost to Jarnail Singh in the 2015 elections.
The AAP had swept Delhi assembly elections in 2015 and had won 67 out of 70 seats.
Elated by its victory in Rajouri Garden assembly by-polls, the BJP said that people had given the AAP a "fitting gift" by defeating it and that the party was on the verge of extinction.
"Earlier, they...lost Punjab and Goa assembly polls and today's (Thursday's) result of the Rajouri Garden assembly by-poll is like the last nail in the coffin for AAP. It is on the verge of extinction," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said.
He added that people had lost faith in the AAP and its National Convener Arvind Kejriwal.
The BJP leader also tweeted: "AAP and Kejriwal have not just lost their deposit, they have (also) lost their credibility."
"Neglecting Delhi people, Kejriwal went to Punjab and Goa for assembly elections. Now the residents of Delhi have neglected him," Patra told reporters.
Reacting to AAP's performance, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that Rajouri Garden voters were angry over AAP lawmaker Jarnail Singh's resignation to contest the Punjab assembly elections, which led to the party's poor show in the by-poll.
"People in the Rajouri Garden assembly constituency were angry after Jarnail Singh resigned... We tried to make them understand, but it seems they are still angry with the AAP," Sisodia told reporters outside his official residence.
However, he said it was just a by-poll and that "we will keep preparing for the coming elections".
The Rajouri Garden by-poll on Sunday had witnessed a poor turnout as only 47 per cent people cast their votes. In the 2015 assembly elections, when the AAP had swept to power, the constituency had seen 72 per cent ballotting.
Praveen Rai, political expert at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, termed the defeat a "major blow" to the AAP and said it was time for the party to introspect.
"This is a signal that the AAP's popularity is going down. This result will have a certain impact on MCD elections. If AAP looses MCD polls, then it will lose its narrative," Rai told IANS.
Delhi Congress President Ajay Maken termed the Rajouri Garden by-poll result a "referendum" on the Kejriwal government in Delhi.
Maken said that the AAP's vote percentage in the constituency had gone four times down to its last vote share, while the Congress' vote share increased three times to its previous figure.
"We have jumped from 12 per cent vote share for the constituency to 36 per cent in just two years," Maken said.
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