BJP’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Thursday won the Delhi Assembly byelection from the Rajouri Garden constituency. He defeated his nearest rival Meenakshi Chandela of the Congress by a margin of nearly 14,000 votes, pushing the ruling AAP’s candidate to a distant third, who lost his deposit.
While Sirsa polled 40,602 votes, Chandela got 25,950 and the AAP’s Harjeet Singh could only manage 10,243 out of a total 78,091 votes cast during poll on Sunday, the Election Commission said after the final round of counting.
The voting which was held on April 9 witnessed only 47% of voter turnout, which was very low compared to previous elections. In 2015 Assembly elections, voter turnout was about 72%. In 2013 assembly elections, the voter turnout was 68%.
The result of this bypoll, which was necessitated as the previous AAP MLA , Jarnail Singh, had resigned and fought election from Punjab, is seen as a test for the upcoming municipal poll to be held on April 23, where for the first time, three major parties – AAP, Congress and BJP will be contesting.
The AAP leadership in Delhi has blamed Jarnail Singh for the defeat. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia while interacting with the media after the results were announced said “Seeing the by-poll results, we can make out that the voters are still annoyed with Jarnail Singh’s decision of going to Punjab”.
However, supporters of Jarnail Singh said that the move to send Jarnail Singh was taken by the AAP leadership including Sisodia. “Now they are blaming Jarnail as if he alone took the decision to go to Punjab. AAP lost Rajouri because they have done nothing concrete on the ground. Rather than blaming it on individuals, AAP should do a self assessment. A coterie is working at the top which is taking all the decisions by talking to each other, no worker, mid level party worker is included in the decision making process”, an AAP functionary said.
However AAP leaders said that all was well within the party’s decision making process and the loss in Rajouri was something that the party will look into very carefully.