From Ajay Maken to Kiran Bedi: Here are the five biggest losers of the Delhi election

The Delhi Assembly elections results on Tuesday dealt a massive blow to the BJP who were clearly not expecting a defeat of such magnitude. While most exit polls across research agencies predict a slight edge to the AAP in a tough electoral battle, none predicted a 67-seat win for the party in a 70-member House. But in a day full of AAP triumphs, we take a look at the five biggest losers of this election: Ajay Maken 

The biggest blow for the Congress was the defeat of its election campaign chief Ajay Maken. While most exit polls had predicted a 2-3 seat win for the party, they didn’t even manage a single. While Maken has now offered to resign as Congress General Secretary given his party’s disastrous performance, it would be stupid to pin the blame on the former Union minister as since the election was declared, it has always been an AAP vs BJP fight and the Congress never really featured. Interestingly, early morning on counting day, when Congress was leading in five seats, Maken quipped, “well at least we’re doing better than what the exit polls predicted.”  Jagdish Mukhi   If the BJP’s top leadership had not appointed Kiran Bedi as its CM candidate, professor Jagdish Mukhi could well have been the top contender for the post. A veteran BJP leader and an RSS man, Mukhi has been winning the Assembly seat, a BJP stronghold, since 1993. A professor at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Bhagat has been the Leader of Opposition in Delhi and has served the BJP in various capacities including as a member of its National Executive Committee. His defeat though comes as a massive blow to the party which now, besides being almost wiped out in the Assembly, has not formidable state party leadership as well. Mukhi lost his seat by over 25,000 votes. Kiran Walia:   This defeat was almost certain given that it was against the AAP’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal. If Kejriwal could manage to defeat three-time Congress CM Sheila Dikshit in the 2013 Assembly elections, Kiran Walia was no match. A former minister in Dikshit’s cabinet, Walia had challenged Kerjiwal’s candidature in court raising questions about his affidavit as well as his road shows which she alleged were in violation of the model code of conduct. The Election Commission, however, stood by Kejriwal saying his candidature was valid as his name was enrolled as a voter in New Delhi constituency, as required by law. Walia, who was quite obviously trailing since counting began, managed to secure just 4,781 seats as compared to Kejriwal’s 57,213. Kiran Bedi The BJP may have expected Kiran Bedi’s candidature and her projection as the party’s CM candidate to rope in a massive victory for the party by winning the middle class vote, but little did they expect that Bedi would go on to lose from Krishna Nagar, a BJP stronghold that has been represented by now Union Minister Harsh Vardhan since 1993. While Bedi did face some setbacks with her own election campaign chief resigning 1o days before the election, the party was certain she would come through and at least be a strong opposition voice if the party failed to get a majority. But even in defeat, Bedi was not humble. “I have not lost, the BJP has lost. They are a national party, let them introspect,” she told reporters from her residence on Tuesday afternoon. Sharmistha Mukherjee   A fresh face that the Congress party was hoping would work in its favour was that of Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of President Pranab Mukherjee, a veteran Congressman. Mukherjee, who joined the party only last year launched her campaign with a focus on Resident Welfare Associations hoping to win the vote of fellow residents. The established Kathak dancer also managed to get West Bengal Congress leaders to campaign for her candidature, hoping to win the support of the Bengali dominant Chitaranjan Park area of Greater Kailash, but to no avail. Aam Aadmi Party’s Saurabh Bharadwaj, who won in 2013 as well, managed to win with an even higher number of votes this time.