AAP wrests reserved seats from Congress

New Delhi: Debutant Aam Admi Party, which gave a scintillating performance in assembly polls, has won nine out of 12 reserved seats, some of them considered to be the stronghold of Congress, in Delhi Assembly elections this time.

Congress had won nine of the 12 seats in the 2008 assembly elections. 80-year-old, four-time Congress legislator, Chaudhary Prem Singh, who had not lost a single election over the past 50 years in his Ambedkar Nagar constituency, was defeated by AAP`s new entrant Ashok Kumar by 16,000 votes and ended up in the third spot. Kumar was followed by BJP candidate Khushi Ram Chunar who lost to him by a margin of 11,670 votes. AAP candidate Rakhi Birla defeated four-time Congress MLA and Public Works Department Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan by a margin of 10,585 votes in in Mangolpuri. Three-time winner, Congress candidate Veer Singh Dhingan was beaten by Dharmender Singh of AAP by a margin of 11,976 votes. In Bawana, AAP candidate Manoj defeated last assembly poll`s winner Surender Kumar of Congress and won against Gugan Singh of BJP by 25,639 votes. Prakash from AAP also made a record of sorts by garnering maximum votes from Deoli constituency (51,646) defeating BJP (34,538) and Congress (26,140) by huge margins. Manoj Kumar of AAP also wrote history by defeating Congress party`s heavyweight candidate, MLA Amrish Singh Gautam in Kondli. He also beat BJP candidate Dushyant Kumar Gautam by a margin of 7,490 votes in Kondli. Besides, Girish Soni from AAP defeated BJP candidate Kailash Sankla and Congress`s Malaram Gangwal in Madipur. Rajesh Lilothia from Congress in Patel Nagar was beaten by Veena Anand of AAP who also defeated Poornima Vidyarthi from BJP by a margin of 6262 votes. AAP candidate Vishesh Ravi defeated BJP strong man Surender Pal Ratawal, a two-time MLA, by a margin of 1750 votes in Karol Bagh. Raju, AAP candidate, beat BJP`s Sunil Kumar by a margin of 17685 votes in Trilokpuri. Meanwhile, BJP maintained control over its two reserved seats. Gugan Singh of BJP defeated AAP candidate, Manoj by a margin 25,639 votes in Bawana and another BJP candidate Ranjeet Singh won over an independent candidate Surendra Kumar by 1922 votes in Gokulpur. Jai Kishan, Congress candidate defeated Sandeep Kumar from AAP in Sultanpur Majra by a margin of 1112 votes.