12 years later, ARVIND KEJRIWALS Sheila Dikshit moment. Courtesy: Her son

New Delhi:

The big headline in this election in Delhi is BJP’s Parvesh Verma, which defeats Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convener and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. But behind the story is an under -plan for how Congress’s Sandeep Dikshit, former chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s son, managed to make sure Kejriwal’s defeat, even though he ended up in third place.

For the new Delhi choice circle, this is a deja vu of kind. Former chief minister Sheila Dikshit won the seat, then called the Gole Market, in 1998 and 2003. After boundary, the seat was called New Delhi, and Mrs. Dikshit won it in 2008. In the 2013 vote, Kejriwal jumped into the voting arena. The AP leader ran high in popularity after India against corruption movement, the AAP leader trumped the three-year chief minister, which effectively ended his political career and emerged as a huge killer. AAP’s victory in 2013 also removed Congress from power.

Twelve years later, AAP’s national is now the Goliath that BJP’s David-47-year-old Parvesh Verma defeated. But another story unfolds in the numbers. Mr. Kejriwal has lost against Mr. Verma with a margin of 4,089 votes. And Sandeep Dikshit managed to win 4,568 votes and completed a distant third. So if AAP and Congress had contested this election together, Kejriwal would probably have scored a slim victory. But it shouldn’t be.

The numbers tell another story. In the 2020 election, Kejriwal won New Delhi and defeated BJP’s Sunil Yadav by over 21,000 votes. Romesh Sabharwal, the congregation, had then scored 3,220 votes. So by going after the numbers, BJP has certainly achieved huge gains in the constituency between these two elections. Furthermore, the corruption charges against the AAP collector, in the spirits political case and alleged irregularities in the renewal of Chief Minister’s Home, have played on the voter’s mind.

During the election for the election, Mr Dikshit had run a lively campaign against the AAP leader and said Congress should raise the Delhi government’s failures. His sister Latika, who fought for him, had said that Sheila Dikshit continues to live in the heart of the people of Delhi for her key role in the development of the national capital.

Interestingly, Mr. Verma also the son of former Delhi chief minister SaHib Singh Verma. A BJP veteran, SaHib Singh Verma was the chief minister of the national capital from February 1996 to October 1998 and succeeded BJP’s Madan Lal Khurana in the top post.