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Sandeep Dikshit, son of former Delhi chief minister and Congress stalwart Sheila Dikshit, finished third in the race but got his revenge by eating in to Kejriwal’s votes which subsequently resulted in BJP’s Parvesh Verma win.
Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal (File)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clinched the bastion of Delhi after 27 years, defeating Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). BJP’s Parvesh Singh Verma proved to be giant slayer who defeated the AAP supremo from the New Delhi assembly constituency. However, this time, Congress’ Sandeep Dikshit did a Faisal (in reference to Bollywood Gangs of Wasseypur) thing and took ‘maa ka badla’ from Kejriwal.
Sandeep Dikshit, son of former Delhi chief minister and Congress stalwart Sheila Dikshit, finished third in the race but got his revenge by eating in to Kejriwal’s votes which subsequently resulted in BJP’s Parvesh Verma win in the tight contest.
Verma defeated Kejriwal by a margin of 4,089 vote. Meanwhile, Dikshit managed to get a little over 4,568 votes and finished a distant third. So, if the AAP and the Congress had contested this election together, Kejriwal would have likely scored a slim victory. But that was not to be.
The result ultimately brought it to a full circle as the AAP supremo, who had gained widespread popularity by defeating Sheila Dikshit from the prestigious New Delhi assembly constituency, lost his seat after over a decade.
In the 2013 Delhi polls, Kejriwal, who was riding high on popularity after the India Against Corruption movement, jumped into the poll arena and contested against Dikshit. The AAP leader trumped the three-term Chief Minister by over 21,000 votes, effectively ending her political career, and emerged as a giant slayer. The AAP’s 2013 victory also removed the Congress from power.
Kejriwal retained the seat in 2015, defeating the BJP candidate with a margin of over 31,000 votes, though his victory margin to 21,000 votes in the 2020 polls.
12 years later, AAP’s national convener has been defeated by Parvesh Verma, son of former CM Sahib Singh Verma. For Sandeep, this election was personal, finally an opportunity to reclaim family’s lost legacy.
BJP delivered a resounding defeat to the AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections on Saturday. It is poised to form a government in Delhi for the first time since 1998, with the latest Election Commission trends showing the saffron party ahead in 48 of the 70 assembly seats and AAP in 22.
Read More: How BJP Got Past Delhi’s ‘27-Year Itch’ With Freebies, RSS & Anger Against AAP In Tow
The biggest blows to the AAP came as party supremo Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia lost from their seats – New Delhi and Jangpura – respectively, to BJP’s Parvesh Singh Sahib and Tarvinder Singh Marwah.
Congress, which had ruled the national capital for 15 years under Sheila Dikshit, was nowhere close to the contest.
