Rajouri Garden Assembly bypoll a litmus test for CM

The Rajouri Garden Assembly Constituency by-election will be crucial for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, which will be a litmus Test for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after political debacle’s in Punjab and Goa.

AAP had won a historical victory in the 2015 Delhi Assembly election. Former Rajouri Garden MLA Jarnail Singh had resigned because he was fielded as an AAP Candidate in Lambi against former Punjab Chief Minister Singh Badal. The AAP MLA, however, lost against the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patron.

On Tuesday, Delhi State Election Commission announced about the Delhi Municipal election to be held on April 22, with the results to be declared on April 25.

According to sources, the party has decided to launch a fresh Sikh candidate in place of Jarnail Singh.

Rajouri Garden Assembly constituency is a Punjabi and Sikh-dominated area of West Delhi, from where Delhi Congress Chief and former Union Minister Ajay Maken had won three consecutive times between 1993, 1998 and 2003.

Maken went on to become MP from the New Delhi Parliamentary seat and the 2004 bypoll was won by Congress’ Ramesh Lamba.

After delimitation of Delhi Assembly Constituencies in 2008, former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had fielded a former BJP man Dayanand Chandela from Rajouri Garden.

Congress sources say that Chandela is interested in launching his daughter-in-law Minakshi Chandela. In the 2013 and 2015 Assembly polls, Chandella and his wife Dhanwati were both defeated.

Rajouri Garden was left for BJP’S coalition partner SAD. However, senior BJP Councillor and South MCD Chairman Subhash Arya wants to fight the election now. On the other hand, SAD’S Manjider Singh Sirsa is no in mood to leave this Assembly seat for BJP.

The last date of nomination for Assembly by-election is March 21.

In February 2015, AAP got a stunning victory by winning of 67 seats out of 70 in the Delhi Assembly polls.

Now, the Rajouri Garden by-election result will be prove to be a litmus test during the Delhi civic bodies poll campaign.