New Delhi: Garnering 28 seats in an impressive debut, the Aam Admi Party came close to scripting a political history by finishing second in 20 of the 70-seat Assembly, losing some of them with only a narrow margin.
Stunning many a political heavyweights, the greenhorn conceded, out of those 20, only two seats to Congress while losing the remaining to BJP. While AAP's candidate from R K Puram seat, Shazia Ilmi missed the Assembly bus by mere 326 votes to BJP's Anil Kumar Sharma, it lost Sultanpur Majra seat to Congress' Jai Kishan by only a little over 1,100 votes.
The crucial Rajinder Nagar seat saw Transport Minister Ramakant Goswami finishing with the third spot and AAP losing to BJP by about 1,800 votes. In Bijwasan, Dwaraka, Kalkaji and and Tri Nagar each, the new party lost by a margin of 2000-3000 votes.
In South Delhi, the new entrant notched up Greater Kailash, Kasturba Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Ambedkar Nagar, Deoli, and gave a close fight to BJP's Parvesh Sahib Singh who toppled Speaker Yoganand Shastri from Mehrauli.
AAP finished second here losing by a margin of 4,564 votes. Constituted only a year back, the AAP surprised political pundits and trend-watchers this election by routing Congress and thwarting BJP's march toward getting the magic number of 36, thus throwing the city into a hung assembly.
Its party chief and New Delhi constituency's candidate-elect Arvind Kejriwal stormed outgoing three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's bastion, trouncing her with over 25,000 votes. The rookie politician-led AAP finished second spot, relegating the 127-year-old party to a third position, fighting on the "pro-people" and "anti-corruption" poll plank.
The elections witnessed AAP party giving moments of scare to the saffron party during counting, which riding on a strong anti-incumbency wave has emerged as the single largest party in Delhi and is forming governments in other three states -- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the results for which were announced on Sunday. Apart from 45-year-old bureaucrat-turned politician Kejriwal, this election saw AAP throwing many a giant killers.
Chiefly among them is 53-year-old Ashok Kumar from Ambedkar Nagar who upstaged Congress' Prem Singh, who holds a Guinness Book record for winning polls since 1958 each time contesting from the same constituency and the same political party. "Prem Singh is a legend in the electoral domain and is known to have won any election he has entered into. Our candidate has slain that giant," a supporter said as he shouted pro-AAP slogans.
26-year-old Prakash in Deoli perhaps set a record of sorts by garnering one of the biggest votes for AAP (51,646) defeating BJP (34,538) and Congress (26,140) by huge margins. In a post-poll glory, AAP supporters carried him on their shoulders as Prakash said that "his victory came because of the lack of work done by his predecessors" and that "his party's work has now begun".
Kejriwal has already described AAP's spectacular performance as "not a victory of Aam Admi Party, but a victory of the people" and today maintained that his party will play the role of a "constructive Opposition".
