New Delhi: While it has been clear for a while that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is set for a spectacular victory in the Delhi assembly elections, its deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was caught in a neck-and-neck contest in the Patparganj constituency. Finally, at 2:40 pm, the Election Commission declared that he had won the seat by 2,000 votes.
For long periods during the day, Sisodia had trailed Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ravinder Singh Negi – a little-known 43-year-old businessman from Patparganj. After 10 rounds, Sisodia trailed by 1,200 votes. There are a total of 15 rounds. Sisodia is a two-time MLA from Patparganj, having won in 2013 by a margin of 11,000 votes and in 2015 by over 28,000 votes.
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The contest this time was closer than the AAP and Sisodia would have wanted, particularly as he is seen as chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s trusted lieutenant. Sisodia has also been credited with upgrading Delhi’s primary education and other governance reforms which the party had campaigned on.
He was seen as an effective administrator who took charge of the development work that the AAP took to the people. The Kejriwal-Sisodia duo is known to work effectively, where Kejriwal took a bulk of the political responsibilities and Sisodia stuck to governance.
A few days prior to polling, an associate of Sisodia’s was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on charges of accepting bribes. In the last few days of the campaign, Negi had campaigned in Patparganj appealing to voters to vote against Sisodia on the basis of the CBI case.