Delhi Polls: AAP MLA Gopal Rai Wins Babarpur Seat, Defeats BJP's Naresh Gaur

Aam Aadmi Party’s sitting MLA and Delhi government minister Gopal Rai comprehensively won the Babarpur seat in the Assembly elections, results of which were announced on Tuesday. Rai defeated his closest rival Naresh Gaur of the BJP by 33,062 votes. Babarpur is one of the 70 assembly constituencies in Delhi and is a part of North East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. There are nearly 1.92 lakh voters in the Babarpur assembly constituency.

Rai is also the Delhi state convenor of the AAP. Last month, this is where BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah urged the voters to press the EVM button with “such anger that its current is felt at Shaheen Bagh”.

Earlier in 2015, Rai had defeated BJP's Naresh Gaur by over 25,000 votes. Congress candidate Zakir Khan was placed third in the race. Naresh Gaur has represented the constituency four times - 1993, 1998, 2008 and 2013 - while the Congress' Vinay Sharma won the seat in 2003. 

Arvind Kejriwal-led the Aam Aadmi Party to a stupendous victory yet again in the Delhi Assembly polls, dealing a body blow to the main rival BJP and completely decimating the Congress in a keenly-watched battle in the midst of anti-CAA protests.

The 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician almost replicated the AAP's fairy-tale victory of 2015 by riding on his government's development agenda, and in the process emerged as a key leader in the national political landscape.

As AAP bagged 62 out of 70 seats, leaders cutting across party lines including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi (Congress), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Naveen Patnaik (BJD) and MK Stalin (DMK) congratulated Kejriwal for the historic victory.