Rajouri Garden bypoll: Even at No. 2, Ajay Maken calls bypoll result a resurgence of Cong in capital

The Congress candidate, Meenakshi Chandela, secured over 25,000 of the 1.6 lakh votes polled and was ranked second after BJP-SAD’s winning candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who won by over 14,000 votes.

Maken, who has represented the Rajouri Garden constituency in the Delhi Assembly three times, said the bypoll result has established that the elections to the three MCDs will see a a direct fight between the Congress and the BJP.

“AAP, which lost its deposit today, will be a poor third in the municipal polls as well,” he said.

After analysing the booth-wise result, the party chief claimed that pockets of resettlement colonies, unauthorised colonies, safai karamcharis, street vendors and minorities “have en masse supported the Congress” in this bypoll and its old, traditional voter base is now back with the party.

Maken said the bypoll result is a direct referendum on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, where the ruling party (AAP) faced an “unprecedented and humiliating” loss within two years of coming to power in the capital. Maken added that the outcome of the bypoll proves that the people of Delhi have rejected Kejriwal and his governance in Delhi.