AAP won 28 seats, but came second in another 20

After garnering 28 seats in an impressive debut, the Aam Admi Party came close to scripting a political history by finishing second in 20 seats of the 70-seat Assembly, losing some of them by only a narrow margin. Of those 20 seats, it lost just two seats to Congress while losing the other 18 to the BJP. While AAP’s candidate from the RK Puram seat, Shazia Ilmi missed the Assembly bus by a mere 326 votes to BJP’s Anil Kumar Sharma, it lost the Sultanpur Majra seat to Congress’ Jai Kishan by only a little over 1,100 votes. [caption id=“attachment_1277057” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AAP supporters cheering results outside party HQ on Sunday: Shruti Dhapola/Firstpost[/caption] The crucial Rajinder Nagar seat saw Transport Minister Ramakant Goswami finishing in third spot and AAP losing to BJP by about 1,800 votes. In Bijwasan, Dwaraka, Kalkaji and and Tri Nagar, the new party lost by a margin of 2000-3000 votes. In South Delhi, the new entrant won Greater Kailash, Kasturba Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Ambedkar Nagar, Deoli, and gave a close fight to BJP’s Parvesh Sahib Singh who toppled Speaker Yoganand Shastri from Mehrauli. The margin between first and second place here, was 4,564 votes. Constituted only a year back, the AAP surprised political pundits and trend-watchers this election by routing Congress and thwarting the BJP’s from getting an outright majority, thus throwing the city into a hung assembly. Its party chief and New Delhi constituency candidate Arvind Kejriwal stormed outgoing three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s bastion, trouncing her with over 25,000 votes. Apart from 45-year-old bureaucrat-turned politician Kejriwal, this election saw many giant killers emerging from within the party ranks. Chiefly among them is 53-year-old Ashok Kumar from Ambedkar Nagar who upstaged Congress’ Prem Singh, who holds a Guinness Book record for winning the constituency seat for Congress since 1958. “Prem Singh is a legend in the electoral domain and is known to have won any election he has entered into. Our candidate has slain that giant,” a supporter said as he shouted pro-AAP slogans. 26-year-old Prakash in Deoli perhaps set a record of sorts by garnering one of the highest number of votes for AAP (51,646) defeating BJP (34,538) and Congress (26,140) by huge margins. AAP supporters carried him on their shoulders as Prakash said that “his victory came because of the lack of work done by his predecessors” and that “his party’s work has now begun”. Kejriwal has already described AAP’s spectacular performance as “not a victory of Aam Admi Party, but a victory of the people” and today maintained that his party will play the role of a “constructive Opposition”. PTI