Manoj Tiwari pays courtesy visit to poll rival Sheila Dikshit

New Delhi: Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari on Saturday paid a courtesy visit to his Congress counterpart Sheila Dikshit, whom he defeated on the North East Delhi seat in the general election, at her residence here.

Tiwari visited the 81-year-old Dikshit at her East Nizamuddin residence after learning about her ill-health, said Delhi BJP media co-convener Neelkant Bakshi. During the 20-minute meeting, he enquired Dikshit about her health. "The two leaders acknowledged that political rivals can have friendly and harmonious relations and Tiwari told Dikshit he treated her like his mother," Bakshi said.

Dikshit was defeated by 3.66 lakh votes by Tiwari from North East Delhi seat. During a press conference, Tiwari had admitted he was "scared internally" to face the three-time Delhi chief minister and Congress veteran in the poll.

Dikshit took charge of Delhi Congress president in January and led the party in the general election. Under her leadership, Congress candidates managed to get more votes and replaced AAP candidates on five of the seven Lok Sabha seats as nearest rivals to winning BJP candidates.

The party, however, failed to win even a single seat as the BJP under Tiwari's leadership did a clean sweep winning all the seven seats by huge margins.