AAP RETAINS BAWANA, CONG DOUBLES VOTES

The Aam Aadmi Party retained north Delhi’s Bawana seat by winning the bypoll with 59,886 votes on Monday, in a verdict that comes as a setback for the BJP that had hoped to wrest the constituency after an impressive show in civic polls this year.

The by-election to Bawana was necessitated after the AAP’s sitting MLA Ved Parkash quit the party and become the BJP’s candidate this time.

After the final round of counting, the AAP won by a margin of almost 24,000 votes. The BJP garnered 35,834 votes while the Congress got 31,919 votes.

This means the Congress has more than doubled its tally of votes over the 2015 assembly elections while the BJP saw its number of votes plummet almost by half.

The AAP fielded party volunteer Ram Chandra, who had contested assembly polls from Bawana in 2008 on a BSP ticket. The Congress fielded party veteran and three-time MLA from Bawana Surender Kumar.

Delhi chief minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal attributed the victory to “clean” politics and his government’s performance in the Capital. Delhi Congress said its performance in the election was “quite satisfactory”.

“Our vote share has increased while that of both AAP and BJP has gone down,” said Ajay Maken, chief, Delhi Congress.

DELHI CHIEF MINISTER ARVIND KEJRIWAL ATTRIBUTED THE VICTORY TO “CLEAN” POLITICS AND HIS GOVERNMENT’S PERFORMANCE IN THE CAPITAL