Delhi polls: Cong, BJP saw political dynasts fail; AAP strikes gold

The Congress and the BJP whichplaced their bets on the kin of political veterans ended up tasting defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections, even as those with a political legacy who joined the AAP just ahead of the polls, went on to trounce their rivals by considerable margins.Congress' candidate from Kalkaji, Shivani Chopra, daughter of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief Subhash Chopra, polled a little over four per cent votes from the constituency and ended up behind AAP's winning candidate Atishi and BJP's Dharambir Singh. Shivani also ended up losing her security deposit.Interestingly, Shivani's father has been elected thrice as MLA from the constituency.Former Delhi Speaker Yoganand Shastri's daughter Priyanka Singh was fielded by the grand old party from theR K Puram seat, but she only polled 3,237 votes. The winning candidate from AAP Pramila Tokas polled 47,208 votes from the constituency.Singh, 41, is the vice-president of the Delhi Mahila Congress and has been politically active since 2008.Her father served as Delhi minister for food and civil supplies from 1998 to 2003, minister for health and social welfare from 2003 to 2008 and Delhi Assembly speaker from 2008 to 2013.Shastri represented the Mehrauli seat for the first two terms and the Malviya Nagar constituency in his third term.Poonam Azad, wife of Kirti Azad, who headed the campaign committee of Delhi Congress, was the candidate for the Sangam Vihar seat, but her fate in the polls was worse than her Congress counterparts.She finished the poll race in the fourth position from the Sangam Vihar constituency, even behind the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. She bagged a meagre 2.23 per cent of the total votes polled.AAP's Dinesh Mohaniya retained the seat by securing over 75 per cent of the votes polled.Poonam, 53, had contested against then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit in the 2003 assembly polls on a BJP ticket. She snapped her ties with the BJP in November 2016 after serving the party for more than 20 years, alleging that she had been sidelined. Poonam then joined the AAP, but just five months later, in April 2017, she switched to the Congress.Her father-in-law Bhagwat Jha Azad, who served as Bihar chief minister in 1988-89, also belonged to the Congress.Her husband and former MP from Bihar's Darbhanga, Kirti Azad, was suspended by the BJP in December 2015 after he alleged irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) when it was headed by former Union finance minister Arun Jaitley.Former Model Town MLA Kunwar Karan Singh's daughter Akanksha Ola was in the fray from Model Town, but faced defeat.Nangloi Jat MLA Birender Singh's son Mandeep Singh, former Ambedkar Nagar MLA Chaudhary Prem Singh's son Yaduraj Chaudhary and former Mustafabad MLA Hasan Ahmed's son Ali Mehendi also met a similar fate.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had also fielded candidates related to politicians this assembly election.Rajiv Babbar, son of former three-time MLA O P Babbar, was fielded by the saffron party from Tilak Nagar, but ended up losing to AAP's Jarnail Singh for the third time by a margin of over 28,000 votes.The senior Babbar had held the Tilak Nagar seat in 1993, 2003 and 2008.Rajiv Babbar had twice unsuccessfully contested from the seat in 2013 and 2015. He had lost to AAP's Jarnail Singh on both occasions.Brother of former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, Azad Singh was the BJP's candidate from Mundka, but he lost to AAP's Dharampal Lakra, a first-timer, by over 19,000 votes. He is also the uncle of BJP MP from West Delhi Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma.In 2013, Azad Singh was elected as the mayor of North Delhi. He has been active in politics since 1998 and has also contested for the post of President of Government School Teachers Association, Delhi (GSTA).Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which came back to power with a thumping majority struck gold with its candidates related to political leaders.The AAP had fielded Preeti Tomar, wife of former Delhi minister Jitender Singh Tomar, from Tri Nagar. She ended up winning the seat for the party by a margin of over 10,700 votes.Her candidature was announced at the last minute after Jitender Singh Tomar was dropped following the Delhi High Court setting aside his election for giving false declaration regarding his educational qualification in his nomination papers for the 2015 Delhi assembly polls.A Dhanwati Chandela, wife of former Congress MLA Dayanand Chandela, joined the AAP just ahead of the polls and ended up winning the Rajouri Garden seat by a margin of over 22,000 votes. She had unsuccessfully contested the Rajouri Garden bypolls in 2017 and lost to Manjinder Singh Sirsa.Vinay Mishra, son of former Congress MP Mahabal Mishra, who had switched allegiance to AAP from Congress, won from Dwarka after defeating his BJP rival by over 14,000 votes.The AAP won in 62 of the 70 seats with a total vote share of 53.57 per cent. The BJP emerged victorious in eight seats, getting 38.51 per cent of the total votes. The Congress could not manage to win a single seat and ended with 4.26 per cent vote share.

Delhi polls: Cong, BJP saw political dynasts fail; AAP strikes gold

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