In Delhi, all the seven Bharatiya Janata Party candidates secured more than 50% vote share in the Lok Sabha elections, the results of which were declared on Thursday. The Aam Aadmi Party was set to finish runners-up in two seats.
First-time election candidate Gautam Gambhir of the Bharatiya Janata Party won the East Delhi Lok Sabha seat with more than 55% of the vote share, according to Election Commission numbers. His closest competitor was the Congress’s Arvinder Singh Lovely, while the Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate Atishi finished third. Gambhir, a cricketer-turned-politician, got 6.96 lakh votes. Lovely polled 3.04 lakh votes and Atishi recived 2.19 lakh votes.
Gambhir used cricket analogies to take digs at his opponents on Twitter. “Neither it’s a ‘Lovely’ cover drive and nor it is an ‘atishi’ [explosive] batting,” he posted. “It’s just the BJP’s ‘gambhir’ [serious] ideology which people have supported...We won’t fail people’s choice.”
He also lashed out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, claiming that while the AAP leader had lost his conscience during the election, he would lose power in eight months. “The amount of mud he has spread in Delhi, as many lotuses will bloom here,” Gambhir added. Assembly elections in Delhi will take place early next year. The Aam Aadmi Party had won 67 of 70 seats in the elections in 2015.
At 10.15 pm, Union minister Harsh Vardhan was leading by over 2 lakh votes against Congress’ JP Agarwal in the Chandni Chowk seat, while BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi was ahead of Congress’ Ajay Maken by 2.5 lakh votes in the New Delhi constituency.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari defeated former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by 3.66 lakh votes in North East Delhi. In the North West Delhi constituency, BJP candidate Hans Raj Hans defeated Gugan Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party by 5.53 lakh votes while the BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri was leading AAP’s Raghav Chadha by 3.66 lakh votes in South Delhi.
In the West Delhi seat, Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, the son of former Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma, defeated Congress candidate Mahabal Mishra by 5.78 lakh votes.
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