BJP routs INDIA bloc in Capital
Samad Hoque
New Delhi, June 4
The BJP on Tuesday displayed its political prowess in the Capital, sweeping all seven Lok Sabha seats for the third consecutive time.
Despite Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s spirited campaign following his release on May 10, the Opposition INDIA bloc of AAP and Congress in Delhi drew a blank ahead of the crucial February 2025 Assembly elections. Congress’ North West candidate Udit Raj lost by the largest margin of 2,90,849 votes to BJP’s Yogender Chandolia.
The most-hyped parliamentary seat of North East Delhi saw popular Bhojpuri singer-turned politician and BJP candidate Manoj Tiwari registering his third consecutive win. This time he defeated former JNU students’ union president and Congress candidate Kanhaiya Kumar with more than one lakh votes.
The AAP and Congress which forged a pre-poll alliance to defeat the BJP campaigned heavily in the North East constituency to secure a win for Kumar. Kejriwal held two roadshows in his support, but Tiwari managed to defend his seat.
The saffron party had retained only Tiwari among the seven candidates who fought on its ticket in 2019. However, along with Tiwari, all six newcomers emerged victorious with handsome margins.
Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late BJP veteran Sushma Swaraj, won by the lowest margin of 78,370 votes in the Capital from the VVIP seat of New Delhi. She defeated AAP’s Somnath Bharti.
Another close contest was witnessed in Chandni Chowk constituency between Congress’ Jai Prakash Agarwal and BJP’s Praveen Khandelwal with the latter winning by a margin of 89,325 votes. BJP’s Harsh Malhotra also had a tough fight in the East Delhi seat with AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar.
The BJP was the only party to field women candidates in the Capital — Swaraj and Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi — and both first-timers. Sehrawat, the least known figure among the seven BJP candidates, defeated former MP and AAP candidate Mahabal Mishra with a margin of 1,99,013 votes.
In South Delhi seat, BJP candidate Ramvir Singh Bidhuri defeated Sahi Ram Pahalwan of AAP by a margin of 1,24,333 votes.
