In a major comeback, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) retained the Bawana Assembly constituency by 24,052 votes, leaving behind the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. The bypoll results were announced on Monday with the AAP candidate, Ram Chander bagging 59,886 votes, while the BJP, which had fielded AAP turncoat Ved Parkash as its candidate, finished
a distant second with 35,834 votes. The Congress’ Surender Kumar trailed close behind with 31,919 votes.
“I thank the people of Bawana for putting their seal of approval on the AAP’s clean politics and work done over the last 2.5 years,” Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.
Interestingly, Ved Parkash had won this seat by over 50,000 votes in 2015 on the AAP’s ticket, but he lost this seat on the BJP’s ticket.
A total of 28 rounds of counting were held. Bawana is one of the largest constituencies in Delhi in terms of the number of voters (2.94 lakh). The by-election, which was held on August 23, saw a meagre turnout of 45 per cent.
Of the total 1,31,950 votes polled, the AAP cornered 45.4 per cent, the BJP 27.2 and the Congress 24.2 per cent.
As many as 1,413 people opted for NOTA (none of the above) category.
The result has come as a morale booster for the AAP, which with this victory, broke a chain of defeats it had suffered in the last few months.
located in Outer Delhi, the Bawana constituency is a mix of slum clusters, villages and has a huge poorvanchali (migrants from East UP and Bihar) voter base, factors that combined to propel the AAP to victory. In the Bawana constituency the core vote bank of the AAP was intact as the party managed to regain it even after Ved Parkash had withdrawn.
Four months ago, the BJP had swept the municipal polls and the Rajouri Garden bypoll. The Congress’ hopes to regain some lost ground in its erstwhile turf were dashed. In the initial few rounds of counting, it appeared that the party would give a tough fight to the AAP, but the AAP surged ahead from the 14th round.
The votes of the rural areas of the constituency were counted in the first few rounds, after which the Congress had a clear edge over its two rivals, the AAP and the BJP. But, as the votes polled in the booths of slum clusters started coming into the picture, the AAP widened its margin.
Eight candidates, including three Independents, were in the fray for the high-stakes by-election which was held on August 23. The bypoll was necessitated after Ved Parkash resigned from the Assembly and the AAP, to join the BJP.
The Congress Party’s candidate was leading the tally till the initial few rounds before the AAP overtook both it and the BJP after the eighth round of counting. However, the Congress continued to retain the second spot thereafter, behind the AAP for a long time, before the BJP edged past it after the 18th round. But, from the 18th round, the AAP’s candidate just surged ahead, finishing at the top of the tally, with a margin of 24,052 votes against the BJP rival.
The counting, which was held at a college in Alipur in North-West Delhi, began at 8 am. A total of 28 rounds were held for the exercise carried out by the office of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer. Electronic voting machines equipped with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail were used in all polling stations for the first time in this constituency.
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