The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday retained the by-election to the Bawana Assembly constituency by a margin of over 24,000 votes. It won the seat in 2015.
According to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi, with 59,886 votes, AAP candidate Ram Chander came first, followed by BJP candidate Ved Prakash (35,834 votes), and Congress candidate Surender Kumar (31,919 votes).
The seat fell vacant in March when Mr. Prakash, who was the AAP MLA, quit and joined the BJP ahead of the municipal corporations’ elections in April.
Mr. Chander had contested as the Bahujan Samaj Party’s candidate in the 2008 election.
Mr. Kumar was the Bawana MLA for three terms till 2013.
This was the second by-election for the AAP after it won a historic 67 out of 70 seats in the 2015 Assembly polls. The by-election to the Rajouri Garden seat in April was won by the BJP, taking its total to four legislators. With the Bawana result, the AAP retains 66 seats in the Assembly.
One of the largest constituencies in Delhi, with a total of 2.94 lakh registered voters, Bawana saw 45% turnout for the August 23 bypoll.
In 2015, the constituency recorded 61.83% turnout. In 2015, the AAP won Bawana by a margin of 50,557 votes or 27.11% of the votes cast, as per the Election Commission.
