AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia lost from the New Delhi and Jangpura Assembly constituencies respectively, on a day which saw the ruling party’s rout in the Delhi Assembly elections. The BJP was leading in 43 seats while AAP was leading in 16 seat at 1.45 pm in the 70-member assembly.

However, Delhi Chief Minister Atishi Marlena brought some respite for AAP as she won from Kalkaji constituency by a margin of 3,500 votes against BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri on Saturday.

Talking to mediapersons, Sisodia congratulated Tarvinder Singh Marwah of the BJP and conceded defeat. In the last round of counting, Sisodia was trailing by 572 votes.

Sisodia, a key leader of the AAP, conceded defeat in the Jangpura Assembly seat. Having previously secured victory three times in a row from Patparganj in East Delhi, he had shifted to Jangpura for this election.  

Accepting his loss, Sisodia acknowledged BJP's Marwah, who is poised to win the seat, and expressed hope that he would address the concerns of the constituency. When asked about the reasons behind his defeat by mediapersons, he stated that he would analyze the results to draw conclusions. "Our party workers put up a strong fight, and we worked hard. The people supported us as well. However, I lost by 600 votes. I congratulate the winning candidate and hope he serves the constituency well," he remarked.

BJP's Parvesh Verma secures win against Kejriwal

After beating Kejriwal, BJP’s Parvesh Verma spoke to Home Minister Amit Shah over the phone. His victory margin over Kejriwal was almost equal to the nearly 3,000 votes garnered by Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit.

Sisodia, described as the brain behind the AAP’s education revolution, had shifted to the Jangpura seat from Patparganj from where he had won the 2020 election.

Earlier, as the Election Commission trends indicated a BJP majority in the Delhi Assembly elections on Saturday, a pall of gloom descended over the AAP's office while celebrations broke out at the BJP headquarters.

Other AAP leaders Satyendar Jain and Saurabh Bharadwaj were also trailing.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Atishi exuded confidence in the AAP's return to power and called the election a battle between good and evil, while Bharadwaj predicted that the AAP would win at least 40-45 seats.

Reacting to the trends, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said: "We can see the blessings of the people of Delhi. We are confident that the tally will remain the same till the end."

An off-shoot of an anti-corruption campaign of Anna Hazare in 2011, ‘Brand Kejriwal’ proved to be fourth time unlucky after winning three successive Delhi Assembly elections.

The AAP’s fourth attempt at capturing the ‘Dilli Darbar’ failed amid a strong anti-incumbency, poor performance of MLAs, and the party chief’s growing faith in turncoats from other parties.

(WIth inputs from syndicated feed)