Upsetting the predictions by most political observers, BJP’s national spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi scored an emphatic win from the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat trouncing her nearest rival, Ashish Khetan, of the Aam Aadmi Party, by 1,62,708 votes. Former Union Minister and two-time MP Ajay Maken came a distant third, however he did still manage to get the highest percentage of votes among all the seven Congress candidates in Delhi.
Ms. Lekhi secured 4,53,350 votes and was followed by Mr. Khetan who got 2,90,642 votes. Mr. Maken bagged 1,82,893 votes. In the last Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Maken had won this seat by 1,87,809 votes.
Clad in a yellow sari teamed with a saffron blouse, Ms. Lekhi looked confident when she entered the counting centre in the Gole Market area.
“We expect getting people’s mandate in our favour because the kind of response I got from people certainly indicated that they want to see a change now in the positive direction,” she said while the counting was going on.
In the very first round of the counting, she had established a lead which kept growing with each passing round. In an apparent indication of things to come, Mr. Maken, who came to the counting centre in the morning, appeared sombre. He met his supporters during the visit and at one booth he also met Ms. Lekhi, where they shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.
Mr. Khetan, who was trailing behind Ms. Lekhi from the first round by a small margin, was initially confident that he would catch up with the BJP candidate in the subsequent rounds. But that round never came as Ms. Lekhi successfully expanded her lead and finally took the glory.
While thanking her supporters after being declared as the winner, Ms. Lekhi talked about her plans for the constituency. “A five-point agenda for my constituency is my priority. Women’s safety tops that list. We have already started a smartphone application for women’s safety,” she said.
Even before counting of votes officially got over, the BJP supporters and workers started celebrating Ms. Lekhi’s victory with dancing and beating drums.
