Independents fail to make impact
In the recently- concluded Lok Sabha polls, 57 Independent candidates, who had contested in Delhi, fared very badly.
Largest number of Independent candidates, 13 in total, were in fray from the prestigious New Delhi Lok Sabha seat where the BJP candidate, Meenakshi Lekhi, defeated AAP candidate Ashish Khetan by a margin of 1,62,708 votes. Ravi Kumar got 20,028 votes, followed by Rubina Khan with 1,260 votes. All the remaining 11 Independent candidates got votes in three figures.
The second highest number of Independent candi-
57 Independent candidates, who had contested in Delhi, fared very badly
dates were in the fray from South Delhi parliamentary seat, where 10 of them had filed nominations, including blonde- haired beauty Ruby Yadav, who had won the Mrs India Queen title in December last year. She not only caught everyone’s attention during her campaign, but also bagged 56,749 votes to finish fourth with BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri winning the seat.
In Chandni Chowk constituency, as many as eight Independent candidates, including a namesake of AAP candidate Ashutosh, were in the fray.
While the real Ashutosh bagged 3,01,618 votes to finish second behind BJP’s Harsh Vardhan, his namesake could only garner 4,504 votes. Another Independent Dildar Hussain Beg bagged 28,605 votes.
In North East Delhi constituency, where Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and Bhojpuri actor- singer Manoj Tiwari defeated Anand Kumar of the AAP by a margin of 1,44,084 votes, there were eight Independent candidates in the fray, but none of them could get a sizeable chunk of votes.
The most interesting scenario cropped up in West Delhi seat, where AAP candidate Jarnail Singh alleged that two other candidates with similar names had cost him the seat as their presence confused the voters.
Although Mr Singh lost to the BJP’s Pravesh Verma by a margin of 2,68,586 votes, he claimed that the other two Jarnail Singhs — who together bagged 90,682 votes — queered the pitch for him. A total of six Independent candidates were in the fray from the seat.
In East Delhi and North West Delhi seats, there were six Independent candidates each in the poll arena, but none of them could get more than some thousand votes.