Aam Aadmi Party leader Bandana Kumari (Photo Credit: Facebook)
New Delhi:
Bandana Kumari of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has won Shalimar Bagh Assembly seat. This seat falls in Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency. Kumari got 57,649 votes and defeated Rekha Gupta (54,183) of the Bharatiya Janata Party and JS NAYOL of the Congress.
Bandana Kumari of AAP had won this seat in 2015. Kumari defeated BJP's candidate by a margin of 10978 votes which was 9.14 per cent of the total votes polled. Bandana Kumari polled a total of 120164 (52.14 per cent) votes.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party was on course to a landslide victory on Tuesday in the high-stakes Delhi Assembly elections, leaving the main rival BJP way behind and decimating the Congress in a bitterly-fought contest that took place in the midst of massive protests over the new citizenship law.
The AAP was leading in 63 seats, the BJP in seven constituencies while the Congress drew a blank in the 70-member assembly, according to the latest vote tally.
The AAP's stupendous victory comes nearly eight months after it suffered a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls in which the party drew a blank while the BJP won all the seven seats.
Among the AAP heavyweights who won the elections after a nail-biter included Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Ragav Chaddha and Atishi. Delhi cabinet ministers Gopal Rai, Satyender Jain also were among prominent winners.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was leading in New Delhi Constituency by over 17,000 votes against his BJP rival Sunil Kumar Yadav.
The elections in the national capital took place in the midst of massive protests in the city and elsewhere over the new citizenship law, an issue which was strongly raised by the BJP top leadership during the campaigning which often turned bitter and vitriolic.
The political opponents of the BJP accused the saffron party of carrying out a "divisive" campaign to polarise the voters by consistently highlighting the over 50-day demonstration by a group of women in Shaheen Bagh area.
Though BJP's campaign focused on national security issues, the AAP mainly focused on its achievements in the fields of education, healthcare and infrastructure.
The AAP had registered a sensational victory in 2015 by winning 67 seats in a hurricane march that almost wiped out the BJP and the Congress.
There are counting centres across 21 locations in 11 districts, including at the CWG Sports Complex in east Delhi, NSIT Dwarka in west Delhi, Meerabai Institute of Technology and G B Pant Institute of Technology in southeast Delhi, Sir CV Raman ITI, Dheerpur in central Delhi, and Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Bawana in north Delhi.
A total of 672 candidates, including 593 men and 79 women, were in the fray for the hotly contested elections.
While Kejriwal was the star campaigner for the AAP, Prime Minister Modi, Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were among those who extensively campaigned for the BJP.
The Congress got into campaign mode much later. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh and party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were among those who campaigned for the Congress.
