This story is from April 14, 2017

Delhi's Rajouri Garden bypoll: Congress takes 2nd slot

In an indication that Delhi's love affair with Aam Aadmi Party and CM Arvind Kejriwal may be waning, the party crashed to a third-place finish with its nominee losing his deposit in the Rajouri Garden assembly byelection while BJP romped home with 51% of the vote.
BJP wins Delhi's Rajouri Garden bypoll, AAP candidate loses deposit
Congress still remains without representation in the assembly where BJP now has four MLAs.
Key Highlights
  • AAP crashed to a third-place finish with its nominee losing his deposit in the Rajouri Garden assembly byelection
  • Congress grabbed the second spot which marks an improvement over its wipeout in the 2015 Delhi elections
NEW DELHI: In an indication that Delhi's love affair with Aam Aadmi Party and CM Arvind Kejriwal may be waning, the party crashed to a third-place finish with its nominee losing his deposit in the Rajouri Garden assembly byelection while BJP romped home with 51% of the vote.
The result came as a serious setback just ahead of the elections to Delhi's municipal corporations that AAP has hoped to wrest from BJP and which have been at the centre of a bitter row over funding and jurisdiction, with both parties accusing one another of throttling the civic bodies for political gain.

There was some good news for Congress, which grabbed the second spot. This marks an improvement over its wipeout in the 2015 Delhi elections but the party still remains without representation in the assembly where BJP now has four MLAs.
AAP said it would not be appropriate to link the result with the municipal elections even as BJP seems to be riding on its recent successes in UP and Uttarakhand and the popularity of its main poll mascot, PM Narendra Modi.
AAP candidate Harjeet Singh's hoardings prominently highlighted the promise to waive house tax if the party won the civic polls, but the pledge didn't seem to have worked, nor did Kejriwal's warning that BJP would end subsidised water and power if it won. AAP has been facing signs of dissidence and may have to deal with calls for soul searching. Former MLA Jarnail Singh, whose resignation to contest in Punjab caused the bypoll, told TOI that his quitting could be seen as one of the reasons, but there were other factors too. “The party needs to do an honest introspection and dwell deeper,“ he said.

The result also indicates that AAP's campaign against EVMs as the cause of its failure in Punjab and the confrontation with the Centre over the powers of the city government as also its governance claims may not have impressed voters.
The poll also points to Delhi politics becoming tri-polar again, as was the case in 2013, and this situation could make the municipal elections, due on April 23, a much closer fight than anticipated.
AAP forfeited its deposit, managing a mere 13.1% of the votes polled, a steep decline from 2015 when it won the seat with an impressive 46.55% of the vote share. Its sitting MLA had quit to take on Akali leader Parkash Singh Badal in the Punjab election. He was not renominated and AAP's failed outreach in Punjab and Goa clearly did not improve its prospects in Delhi.
While the AAP debacle saw Congress wrest back some of its lost vote bank among the poor and climb up to second place with 33.2% votes, BJP candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa, an Akali contesting on the saffron party's symbol, stole the show with a victory margin of nearly 14,652 votes.
AAP's Harjeet Singh could not retain his deposit, bagging a mere 10,243 votes. Kejriwal fielded deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia to do damage control, who refused to concede that the result was a reflection of public perception about the working of the AAP government and Kejriwal. “There was anger among people after Jarnail went to Punjab. We tried convincing them, but, with the result, we are realising that people were not convinced and remained upset,“ Sisodia said.
AAP functionaries said that during the last few days of the campaign, the party had realised that the public mood was hostile as they felt that the bypoll was forced on them. However, party members feel Harjit Singh's selection also contributed to the debacle as he was an outsider. After AAP's dismal performance in Punjab and Goa, the Rajouri Garden bypoll was considered as critical for the party.
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