The Bharatiya Janata Party retained five of the eight seats in the Delhi Cantonment Board elections, which were held on Sunday. The results were declared on Monday. The party’s tally is one less than the previous elections, while the Congress won two seats and the Aam Aadmi Party opened its account outside the Assembly elections.
On a day when the Election Commission of India announced poll dates for the Delhi Legislative Assembly elections, the BJP took the five-seat victory as a sign that the party is “the first choice of the people of Delhi”.
Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay said that the “voters of Cantonment Board had shown that they do not believe in a fractured mandate”. Celebrations broke out in the BJP’s State headquarters, while the winning candidates met party president Amit Shah late in the evening.
The final tally of results saw BJP’s Rachna Kadiyan winning ward number 2, Kavita Jain ward number 3, Jagat Singh ward number 4, Colonel Narendra Choudhary ward number 6, and Priyanka Chowdhary from ward number 8.
The Congress bagged ward number 1, with its candidate Sandip Tanwar polling more votes and ward number 7 with Vimal Chowdhary emerging victorious. The Aam Aadmi Party’s Nand Kishor Beniwal won ward number 5.
The results, however, brought cheers in the Congress camp as the party leadership tried to question political commentators who have started writing obituary for the grand old party. “People who are saying that the Congress isn’t in competition should look at Delhi Cantonment poll results,” said Ajay Maken, AICC general secretary, who is tipped to be the face of the party’s campaign during the Assembly polls.
AAP supporter flashes currency notes
Meanwhile, AAP supporters found themselves in the middle of a controversy after a man said to be a party volunteer flashed currency notes while celebrating the victory.
The party leaders also refused to attach too much importance to the verdict despite the AAP winning the Delhi Cantt seat during the 2013 Assembly polls.
