The winner and runner-up candidates are lobbying hard to get those seats again. The ruling Congress which had a lion’s share of the seats won with the lowest margin is trying to retain them while BJP is eyeing them to wrest power from Congress.
According to the data available with Election Commission, out of these 27 contested seats a maximum of 17 assembly segments were bagged by ruling Congress party. However, only nine seats were in BJP’s kitty.
Furthermore, eight out of these 27 low-margin seats had winning margin of less than 1,000 votes among which six seats were bagged by Congress and only two by BJP in the last Delhi assembly elections.
The lowest winning margin in 2008 was 46 votes at Rajouri Garden from where Daya Nand Chandela of Congress bagged 31,130 votes against his closet rival of BJP-backed Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Avtar Singh who got 31,084 votes.
The seat has been a bone of contention between the BJP and the SAD this time as the latter claims that it will win the seat, while the BJP doesn’t want to take another risk. The senior-most councillor in the city Subhash Arya who is also the only councillor of BJP to represent MCD in the manifesto committee of the party, is trying hard to get nominated from this seat.
Congress is also considering both options of repeating the sitting MLA and fielding a better one. The eight seats which had a winning margin of less than 1,000 votes are Rajouri Garden (46), Narela (832), Vikaspuri (943), Okhla (541), Patparganj (663), and Mustafabad (979) won by Congress while Ghonda (580) and Trilokpuri (634) were bagged by BJP.
The Okhla assembly segment went for a by-election after the resignation of Parvez Hashmi which went to Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Mohammed Asif by a margin of over 5,000 while Congress bagged the fourth position. On the rest of the 19 seats having winning margin of 5,000 votes, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was runner-up in three assembly segments.
According to the data available with Election Commission, out of these 27 contested seats a maximum of 17 assembly segments were bagged by ruling Congress party. However, only nine seats were in BJP’s kitty.
Furthermore, eight out of these 27 low-margin seats had winning margin of less than 1,000 votes among which six seats were bagged by Congress and only two by BJP in the last Delhi assembly elections.
The lowest winning margin in 2008 was 46 votes at Rajouri Garden from where Daya Nand Chandela of Congress bagged 31,130 votes against his closet rival of BJP-backed Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Avtar Singh who got 31,084 votes.
The seat has been a bone of contention between the BJP and the SAD this time as the latter claims that it will win the seat, while the BJP doesn’t want to take another risk. The senior-most councillor in the city Subhash Arya who is also the only councillor of BJP to represent MCD in the manifesto committee of the party, is trying hard to get nominated from this seat.
Congress is also considering both options of repeating the sitting MLA and fielding a better one. The eight seats which had a winning margin of less than 1,000 votes are Rajouri Garden (46), Narela (832), Vikaspuri (943), Okhla (541), Patparganj (663), and Mustafabad (979) won by Congress while Ghonda (580) and Trilokpuri (634) were bagged by BJP.
The Okhla assembly segment went for a by-election after the resignation of Parvez Hashmi which went to Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Mohammed Asif by a margin of over 5,000 while Congress bagged the fourth position. On the rest of the 19 seats having winning margin of 5,000 votes, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was runner-up in three assembly segments.