Delhi Polls: BJP's Jitendra Mahajan Wins Rohtas Nagar Seat, Defeats AAP MLA Sarita Singh

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Jitendra Mahajan won the Rohtas Nagar constituency in the Delhi Assembly elections by 13241 votes on Tuesday, defeating AAP’s sitting MLA Sarita Singh. Singh had won the seat by 7874 votes in the 2015 Assembly polls. She had managed to wrest the seat from Mahajan in 2015. The Rohtas Nagar Assembly constituency is one of the six seats in Delhi held by a woman MLA.

For the February 8 elections, the BJP again trusted Mahajan to take on Singh, while the Congress fielded Vipin Sharma, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2013 and 2015 elections. The Bahujan Samaj Party fielded Trivender.

The AAP was banking on Singh, who is also the president of Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, the students’ wing of the AAP. According to The Times of India, Singh is one of the 10 poorest candidates contesting the elections, with declared assets worth Rs 7 lakh only.

The Rohtas Nagar Assembly constituency is part of the predominantly rural North East Delhi district. The district consists of 27 villages and a few urban areas. Total population of the district is 17,63,710 out of which 9,53,070 are men and 8,10,640 are women. The North East district has literacy rate of 77.85 per cent.

The BJP is headed for a crushing defeat at the hands of the ruling AAP in the Delhi polls with trends showing the Arvind Kejriwal-led party well on its way to win more than 60 seats in the 70-member Legislative Assembly.