AAP’s Manish Sisodia, who was trailing through the day, wins Patparganj in a cliffhanger in Delhi polls
Sisodia has won the seat for two consecutive terms in 2013 and 2015 with the contest seeming a cakewalk—his vote share in the constituency increasing from 41.5% (2013) to 53.5% (2015).
Manish Sisodia on Tuesday registered a victory after many rounds of counting that saw the AAP leader jostling in a tough contest against his nearest rival Ravinder Singh Negi of the BJP in the Patparganj constituency of east Delhi.
Officials said Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s deputy won by a narrow margin and that a final tally was being worked out.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ravinder Singh Negi had led in the most of the counting rounds throughout the day. Negi was at the front in the close race till 11 rounds and till Sisodia turned the tables in the 13th round.
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“I am happy to become the MLA from Patparganj assembly constituency again. The BJP tried to do politics of hate but people of Delhi chose a government that works for the people,” Manish Sisodia said after he won from Patparganj, according to news agency ANI.
The Patparganj assembly is one of the top showcase seats for the AAP in the national capital, after New Delhi, which belongs to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Sisodia has won the seat for two consecutive terms in 2013 and 2015 with the contest seeming a cakewalk—his vote share in the constituency increasing from 41.5% (2013) to 53.5% (2015).
Both the BJP and the Congress had chosen relatively new faces against Sisodia for the 2020 contest. Negi and Laxman Rawat of the Congress had entered the poll arena for the first time. Both of them are also migrants from Garhwal hills of Uttarakhand.
Demographic estimates shared by the three parties suggest that around 20% of voters in Patparganj are migrants from Uttarakhand. Their vote base comes second after the Purvanchali community (25%).
Most of the migrants from Uttarakhand have settled in localities such as West Vinod Nagar, East Vinod Nagar and Chandan Vihar.
In their election campaign, both Rawat and Negi made their connection with Uttarakhand amply visible. Sisodia, on the other hand, had highlighted his party’s poll plank of welfare schemes, development issues and governance.
From 1998 till 2013, the Patparganj seat had been a Congress stronghold. In 2013, AAP’s Sisodia had put a stop to the grand old party’s winning streak in Patparganj.
The BJP had last won the seat in 1993.