Delhi election 2020: 5 seats where AAP, BJP gave each other tough fight

From Bijwasan to Patparganj, these constituencies saw the smallest gaps between the vote shares of the winner and the runner-up

Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday won the Delhi elections, reducing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress to eight and eight and zero seats in the 70-member Assembly.

The largest margin of victory was in Burari where AAP's Sanjeev Jha secured 139,598 votes. Janata Dal (United) candidate Shailendra Kumar was the runners up with 51,440 votes, trailing Jha by 88,000 votes.

The smallest victory margin was also secured by an AAP candidate. Bhupinder Singh Joon retained the seat for his party with 57,271 votes, defeating a close second Sat Prakash Rana (BJP) ticket and secured 56,518 votes a difference of just 753 votes. AAP won in 5 of the constituencies in which the victory margin was the lowest.

In terms of vote share, while the AAP saw a marginal decline from 54.34 per cent to 53.57 per cent, the BJP’s share rose by 6 percentage points from 32.19 per cent to 38.46 per cent. The Congress’ vote share, meanwhile, plumbed further to 4.34 per cent from 9.65 per cent in 2015.

Business Standard takes a look at the five constituencies where the difference in vote share of the winning candidate and their nearest rival was the lowest:

1. Bijwasan Assembly Constituency

Winner: Bhupinder Singh Joon (AAP)

Winner’s vote share: 45.83 per cent

Runner-up: Sat Prakash Rana (BJP)

Runner-up’s vote share: 45.22 per cent

Defeat margin: 753 votes

Difference: 0.60 percentage points

The Bijwasan Assembly Constituency witnessed a neck-and-neck contest between AAP and the saffron party for 26 rounds before the AAP's Bhupinder Singh Joon emerged victorious. Joon defeated Sat Prakash Rana of the BJP by a thin margin of 753 votes. Of the 124,972 votes cast here, Joon secured 57,271, or 45.83 per cent. By comparison, the vote share of Rana (56,518 votes) was 45.22 per cent. The Congress' Parveen Rana managed to get only 5,937 votes (4.75 per cent).

2. Laxmi Nagar Assembly Constituency

Winner: Abhay Kumar Verma (BJP)

Winner’s vote share: 48.04 per cent

Runner-up: Nitin Tyagi (AAP)

Runner-up’s vote share: 47.40 per cent

Defeat margin: 880 votes

Difference: 0.64 percentage points

Laxmi Nagar was previously held by Tyagi, who had narrowly defeated the BJP candidate. However, the wind wasn't in his favour this time. BJP's Abhay Kumar Verma defeated Tyagi by a narrow margin of 880 votes. Of the 136,820 votes cast here, Verma secured 65,735, or 48.04 per cent. By comparison, the vote share of Tyagi (64,855 votes) was 47.40 per cent.  The Congress' Hari Dutt Sharma had to settle with only 4,872 votes (3.56 per cent).

3. Adarsh Nagar Assembly Constituency

Winner: Pawan Sharma (AAP)

Winner’s vote share: 45.20 per cent

Runner-up: Rajkumar Bhati (BJP)

Runner-up’s vote share: 43.66 per cent

Defeat margin: 1,589 votes

Difference: 1.53 percentage points

In Adarsh Nagar, the AAP's Pawan Sharma defeated his nearest rival Rajkumar Bhati of the BJP by 1,589 votes. Of the 103,752 votes cast here, Sharma secured 46,892, or 45.20 per cent. By comparison, the vote share of Bhati (45,303 votes) was 43.66 per cent. The Congress' Mukesh Goel received 10,014 votes (9.65 per cent). In 2015 elections, he had defeated BJP's Ram Kishan Singhal and bagged 51.36 per cent of the votes.

4. Badarpur Assembly Constituency

Winner: Ramvir Singh Bidhuri (BJP)

Winner’s vote share: 47.05 per cent

Runner-up: Ram Singh Netaji (AAP)

Runner-up’s vote share: 45.11 per cent

Defeat margin: 3,719 votes

Difference: 1.94 percentage points

In Badarpur, the BJP's Ramvir Singh Bidhuri defeated his nearest rival Ram Singh Netaji of the AAP by 3,719 votes. Of the 191,460 votes cast here, Bidhuri secured 90,082, or 47.05 per cent. By comparison, the vote share of Netaji (86,363 votes) was 45.11 per cent. The BSP's Narayan Dutt Sharma got 10,436 votes (5.45 per cent).

5. Patparganj Assembly Constituency

Winner: Manish Sisodia (AAP)

Winner’s vote share: 49.33 per cent

Runner-up: Ravindra Chaudhary (BJP)

Runner-up’s vote share: 47.07 per cent

Defeat margin: 3,207 votes

Difference: 2.25 percentage points

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was contesting against Ravinder Negi of the BJP and Laxman Rawat of the Congress. In the past (2013 and 2015), Sisodia won Patparganj assembly constituency by comfortable margins. In 2015, he defeated Vinod Kumar Binny of the BJP by a margin of 28,761 votes. However, this election witnessed a see-saw battle. After losing most rounds of counting, he finally pulled off a win by a margin of 3,207 votes. Of the 142,246 votes cast here, Sisodia secured 70,163, or 49.33 per cent. By comparison, the vote share of Ravinder Singh Negi (66,956 votes) was 47.07 per cent. The Congress' Laxman Rawat managed to get only 2,802 votes (1.97 per cent).