NEW DELHI: It was once again capital punishment for the Opposition. Brought together by the compelling need to avoid splitting of votes,
AAP
and
Congress
– after many hiccups and ignoring the lack of enthusiasm of their cadres – had worked out a seat-sharing arrangement but at the end of the day couldn’t make any dent in the BJP fortress.
The
saffron party
sailed through blithely by winning all seven seats and securing a vote share of 54.3%, albeit down by 2.4% from its 2019 vote share.
AAP and Congress could together poll 43.2%.
Having been pragmatic enough to replace all its sitting MPs, except for Manoj Tiwari, BJP turned out to be the winner who took all. From Tiwari, who defeated Congress’ Kanhaiya Kumar by over 1.37 lakh votes to debutant Bansuri Swaraj, who trounced AAP’s Somnath Bharti by 78,000 votes, the saffron party steamrolled the Opposition.
Lok Sabha Elections
Assembly Elections
The biggest victory margin was recorded in North West Delhi where Yogendra Chandoliya defeated Congress’s Udit Raj by over 2.9 lakh votes.
Not just Delhi, BJP also swept its immediate neighbourhood. Its candidates didn’t have a good day in UP but coasted in Noida and Ghaziabad. Entrepreneur and two-time MP Mahesh Sharma scored a hat-trick in Noida with the biggest victory margin (5.6 lakh) in the state, while Atul Garg, who won by 3.3 lakh votes, had the state’s third-highest margin (after Rahul Gandhi in Rae Bareli). Though reduced to half in Haryana, BJP also retained Gurgaon – where Rao Inderjit Singh won a record sixth term – and Faridabad, where Krishan Pal Gurjar scored a hat-trick.
