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Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee working president and North West Delhi Lok Sabha candidate Rajesh Lilothia held a party meeting in Alipur Sunday to assess the election results and to commend workers for their work on the election campaign.
The former MLA from Patel Nagar polled third in results declared Thursday, behind AAP’s Gugan Singh and BJP’s Hans Raj Hans, who won the seat with over 60% votes.
“We wanted to enthuse our workers and tell them that people are responding to us. They have voted for us and against issues including unemployment, demonetisation and farmer suicides,” said Lilothia. He alleged that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were tampered with and that affected the number of votes the Congress polled.
He said the party will now prepare for the Delhi Assembly elections next year, but did not confirm if he would contest.
Meanwhile, party workers claimed that resentment among leaders over Lilothia being given a ticket also had a negative impact on the Congress’s campaign in the constituency.
Senior party leader Rajkumar Chauhan had defected to the BJP on May 11, a day before polls in the capital, after being denied a ticket from the reserved North West seat.
A party member from Mangolpuri said Chauhan, along with two other senior leaders, were being considered for the seat before Lilothia was selected at the last minute.
“There was resentment among them because of this and that had an impact on the campaign,” he said. However, Lilothia said the defection did not have any impact on his campaign. “The party is not alive on the basis of individuals. All workers have worked hard in the campaign and they will put in the same effort in the Assembly elections as well,” he said.