After gruelling fights, AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal lost from New Delhi, and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia lost from the Jangpura Assembly constituencies on a day when the ruling party went into complete tatters in the city.
Speaking 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 winning margin over Kejriwal was almost equal to the nearly 3,000 votes polled by Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit. The BJP leaders refused to open their lips over its Chief Ministerial candidate even as the party secured a majority with over 45 seats in a 70-member Assembly which has 36 as the majority mark.
Described as the brain behind AAP's education revolution, Sisodia had shifted to Jangpura seat from Patparganj where he has won election in 2020. Earlier, as trends by Election Commission indicated a majority of BJP in Delhi Assembly elections on Saturday, a pall of gloom descended over AAP's office while celebrations started 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.
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