Manish Sisodia romps home after tense Patparganj battle

NEW DELHI: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday had a tense day in a see-saw battle in his Patparganj constituency, which he finally won by a margin of 3,271 votes. For many hours, Mr Sisodia, who held all key portfolios in the AAP government, trailed by a whisker. After several rounds of counting, he was behind his BJP competitor, Ravinder Singh Negi, by about 200 votes. The turnaround took place a little after 2 pm. After his victory, Mr Sisodia, who retained his seat for the third time, said that the BJP indulged in “politics of hate”, but people refused to be divided.

Mr Negi was leading the close race till 11 rounds and till Mr Sisodia turned the tables in the 13th round. Mr Negi (43), who gave Mr Sisodia a scare, is a businessman by profession and his wife is a contractor.

“People of Delhi have explained the true meaning of nationalism through their mandate,” said Mr Sisodia as he clinched victory. Mr Sisodia, who retained his seat for the third time, said that the BJP indulged in “politics of hate”, but people refused to be divided.

In 2013, Mr Sisodia had won by a margin of 11,000 votes and in 2015 by over 28,000 votes.

Besides Mr Sisodia, AAP’s prominent woman face Atishi, who registered victory in her Assembly election debut from Kalkaji, was also trailing in the early trends. She later surged towards victory and defeated BJP’s Dharambir Singh by a margin of over 11,000 votes.

She said that the mandate has shown that “kaam ki rajneeti” (politics of work) has won and that “work is true nationalism”. Ms Atishi had unsuccessfully tested waters in the Lok Sabha elections last year.

“It was clear that people of Delhi had made up their minds about Arvind Kejriwal. They voted for him on the basis of his work. It’s ‘kaam ki rajneeti’ which has won over the politics of hatred,” said Ms Atishi.