Delhi re-elects eight turncoats from AAP, one from BJP in Assembly polls; Alka Lamba among seven vanquished

While all the main parties tried to lap up last-minute defectors to win Delhi Assembly election, eight of the turncoats fielded by the AAP and one by BJP won on Tuesday. A total of 16 turncoats were in the poll fray — nine fielded by the Aam Aadmi Party, three by the Congress and four by the BJP. Anil Bajpai, who was former AAP MLA from Gandhinagar, retained the constituency on a BJP ticket. He defeated AAP’s Naveen Chaudhary by over 6,000 votes. AAP rebel Kapil Mishra, who had joined the BJP and contested from Model Town, lost to AAP’s Akhilesh Pati Tripathi by over 10,000 votes. Tripathi was the sitting MLA from the constituency. The BJP also fielded two Congress turncoats - Sanjay Singh (Vikas Puri) and Surendra Pal Singh Bittoo (Timarpur). Singh was defeated by the AAP’s sitting MLA from Vikaspuri, Mahinder Yadav, by over 31,000 votes. Bittoo lost to the AAP’s Dileep Pandey by over 21,000 votes.

The AAP had fielded nine defectors, including five Congress leaders who recently joined the party. Ram Singh Netaji (Badarpur) and Vinay Mishra (Dwarka) were among them. Former AAP MLA from Dwarka, Adarsh Shastri, switched sides to Congress ahead of 8 February polls. He was fielded from the same constituency by the Congress, but finished at the third spot. He is the grandson of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and his father Anil Shastri is still with the Congress. Vinay Mishra, also a turncoat, won by over 13,000 votes. Mishra is Congress leader Mahabal Mishra’s son. Ram Singh Netaji, who was fielded from Badapur by the AAP after dropping sitting MLA Narayan Dutt Sharma, lost to BJP rival Ramvir Singh Bidhuri. AAP’s Prahlad Singh Sawhney, a former four-time Congress MLA, was pitted against sitting MLA Alka Lamba in the Chandni Chowk constituency. Lamba, who had joined Congress, finished at the third spot with only 3,421 votes, while Sawhney won the seat with a margin of over 27,000 votes. Dhanwati Chandela, who lost to BJP/SAD’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa in Rajouri Garden on a Congress ticket, was fielded by AAP this time. She defeated BJP’s Ramesh Khanna by a margin over 20,000 votes. Rajkumari Dhillon, also a former Congress leader, was AAP’s candidate from Hari Nagar against BJP’s Tajinder Singh Bagga, famous for his internet spats. She defeated Bagga by over 20,000 votes. Shoaib Iqbal, a five-time MLA from Matia Mahal, had parted ways with the Congress and joined the AAP just a few days before the candidate list was announced. He defeated BJP’s Ravinder Gupta by over 50,000 votes. Bhisham Sharma, who was expelled from the Congress and went to the BJP, fought on a Congress ticket from Ghonda this time but lost to BJP’s Ajay Mahawar by a margin of over 28,000 votes. BJP’s Chaudhary Surender Kumar who switched sides to AAP, was fielded from Gokalpur, a reserved constituency. He defeated saffron party’s Ranjeet Singh by over 20,000 votes. From Bawana constituency, Aam Aadmi Party fielded Jai Bhagwan Upkar, who had left the BJP. He defeated BJP’s Ravinder Kumar by over 10,000 votes. Former AAP MLAs Gugan Singh and Devender Sehrawat had joined the BJP but were not given tickets.