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Soni Mishra
Soni Mishra

BYPOLL WIN

After string of defeats, AAP gets a morale boost at Bawana

PTI8_28_2017_000086B AAP candidate Ram Chander greets supporters after he won the Bawana by-election in north-west Delhi | PTI

A win in the bypoll in the assembly constituency of Bawana in Delhi, a comprehensive one at that, has come as a morale booster for the Aam Aadmi Party, which has had a string of electoral losses and whose government in the capital is sullied by allegations of corruption.

AAP candidate Ram Chander, who is a volunteer of the party from the constituency defeated his closest rival Ved Prakash of the BJP by over 24,000 votes. The Congress' Surendra Kumar came third. The final tally in the bypoll reads AAP 59,886 votes, BJP 35,834 and the Congress 31,919.

A victory in the high stakes battle, a three-cornered fight in which the AAP, the BJP and the Congress had invested immense effort, appeared to have given Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal his voice back. 

Kejriwal, who has opted to go quiet after the series of electoral defeats that his party has faced, including the assembly elections in Punjab and the municipal polls in Delhi, decided to give vent to his ire against the BJP after the Bawana results were declared. “AAP ke Vidhayak Jis Mitti Ke Bane Hain, Inhe Khareeda Nahi Ja Sakta (The AAP MLAs are made of such mettle that they cannot be bought).”

The bypoll was necessitated after Ved Prakash, who had won on an AAP ticket in the previous assembly election, returned to the BJP, his parent party, earlier this year. AAP has been accusing the BJP of trying to buy its MLAs in Delhi.

Reacting on Twitter, Kejriwal described the victory as an affirmation by the people of Delhi of the work done by his government. “Thanks to the voters for supporting the clean politics of Aam Aadmi Party and putting a stamp of approval on the work done by the party over the last two-and-a-half years,” he tweeted.

The AAP now has 66 MLAs in the 70-member house. The BJP has four legislators. The party had lost the bypoll in the Rajouri Garden constituency to the BJP.

While the AAP has got a shot in the arm, for the BJP, it is time to review its strategy in Delhi, where it has struggled to come to power for close to 20 years. A victory in the municipal elections was described by the saffron party as an affirmation of the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as also a negation of the politics of the AAP. Moreover, the results show that the people of Bawana, a predominantly rural constituency but with a sizable migrant population living in unauthorised colonies, have rejected the appeals of state BJP president Manoj Tiwari. This is important since Tiwari, a popular Bhojpuri actor, was expected to draw the votes of the substantial Poorvanchali population.

The Congress was desperate for a victory in Bawana so that it would have something to show for its efforts to make a comeback in Delhi by opening its account in the Assembly. However, the party, which had fielded a candidate who had won thrice from Bawana before his winning streak was halted by the AAP, does not seem to be inspiring the people.

Bawana, one of the biggest constituencies in Delhi, with around three lakh voters, had cast its vote in the bypoll on August 23.

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Topics : #AAP | #Delhi

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