New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party suffered a humiliating defeat in the Rajouri Garden bypoll on Thursday with the party candidate losing the election deposit, days before the crucial MCD elections.
AAP candidate Harjeet Singh got 13.1%, less than one-sixth of the total votes polled. The BJP won the seat by a huge margin, with the Congress coming second.
Conceding defeat, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia said that former Rajouri Garden MLA Jarnail Singh’s move to Punjab angered voters in the North West Delhi constituency.
“We had been looking at the Rajouri Garden bypoll very carefully and we had noticed that the people were angry at our MLA Jarnail Singh moving to Punjab to fight elections from there. We had tried to explain our position to the people but it is clear that it didn’t work,” Sisodia said, in an admission of defeat, to reporters outside his Mathura Road residence.
On a more optimistic note, he added, “It doesn’t matter. It was a bypoll result and we will work hard in future elections, especially in Rajouri Garden. We will make them understand our position to convince them that the work done by Jarnail Singh Ji and the Delhi government will be carried forward by the Aam Aadmi Party.”
When asked if this was an indication of things to come for the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, Sisodia said, “Absolutely not. Bypoll are not an indication of larger trends. BJP has lost seats in many places where there was thought to be a BJP wave. We are certain that we will win the MCD elections.”
Jarnail Singh, who had won the Rajouri Garden seat in 2015, had quit from his position to fight elections from Lambi constituency in Punjab against former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal.
He had lost the election in a high-stakes battle with Badal and current CM Amarinder Singh. Before the election, the AAP candidate had said he would stay and work in Punjab regardless of the verdict.
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