Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and Minister Raaj Kumar Anand, who dramatically tendered his resignation in April, was trailing by among the highest margins in the high-profile New Delhi Lok Sabha seat, three hours after counting began on Tuesday. Anand, the AAP's Patel Nagar MLA who held portfolios such as social welfare, had accused the party of being “mired in the quicksand of graft” and “ignoring the Dalit community”. He had joined the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in early May before being fielded from the New Delhi seat where the BJP's Bansuri Swaraj and AAP's Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti are going head to head. As of 11 am, with more than 87,000 votes having been counted in the constituency, Anand, whose resignation from his position in the AAP Delhi cabinet was accepted by Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena just a day earlier, secured less than 1,200 votes counted in his favour by the third round of counting, and was trailing with a margin of more than 86,000 votes. BJP’s Swaraj, with 87,279 votes, was leading over Bharti's tally of 74,456 with a margin teetering on 13,000 votes. Simultaneously, 960 votes had been counted under NOTA.
