Rajinder Nagar bypoll: AAP ka swagat hai | Party’s Durgesh Pathak beats BJP candidate by 11k votes

Pathak took to Twitter to express his gratitude to voters: “Love you Rajinder Nagar.” He also credited his rise to the “leadership of Arvind Kejriwal”.

BJP candidate Bhatia thanked party workers and voters for supporting him: “Defeat and victory are part of life. We fought a tough battle with dedication for which I am thankful to party leaders and workers. Contesting an election against the ruling party candidate is never easy and we did well.”

Delhi CM Kejriwal congratulated Pathak on the victory, and said it was a “defeat of dirty politics”. “Heartfelt thanks to the people of Rajinder Nagar. I am grateful for this immense affection and love of the people of Delhi. This inspires us to work harder and serve,” he tweeted in Hindi.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta thanked the people of Rajinder Nagar for their support to Bhatia: “Winning and losing is part of the democratic system. We accept the mandate of the people. Like in this election, our party workers will work even harder in future elections.”

Both the AAP and BJP had launched a high-voltage campaign, with Kejriwal holding three road shows in the constituency in the last week of campaigning. The BJP had deployed several ‘star campaigners’, including MPs Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwari.

What worked in AAP’s favour

From the urban neighbourhood of Rajinder Nagar to middle and lower middle-class neighbourhoods of Naraina, Pandav Nagar and Dasghara, people were vocal on the issue of shortage of water and bad roads in the run-up to the bypoll. A point raised frequently was that even though Chadha was also DJB vice-chairperson, water woes persisted. Yet, the AAP pulled off a win.

CM Kejriwal remains the most bankable face for AAP wherever it goes to polls, and the party campaigned with the slogan ‘Kejriwal ki sarkar, Kejriwal ka vidhayak (Kejriwal’s government, Kejriwal’s MLA)’. It also tried to permeate the message that since AAP is at the helm in Delhi, having an MLA from the same party raises chances of the constituency’s issues being solved.

Acknowledging that water shortage was a problem being faced by residents, the CM during a road show had said, “A lot of development work has been done in the area, but I acknowledge that some issues need to be addressed. There is a shortage of water supply, but I am working on it and I assure it will get fixed soon.”

The AAP’s two popular schemes — free electricity and water — continue to attract the lower middle class and jhuggi dwellers who are the largest beneficiaries. At present, consumers in Delhi get a zero power bill up to 200 units of electricity and each house gets 20,000 litres of free water. While the BJP got support from posh urban areas like Rajinder Nagar and New Rajinder Nagar, the middle and lower-income neighbourhoods of Pandav Nagar, Dasghara, Todapur and JJ Colony were satisfied with AAP’s policies.

While the voter turnout being low as compared to 2020 — 43.75% down from 58.72% — it was less in upscale Punjabi-dominated areas like Rajinder Nagar and New Rajinder Nagar in comparison to rural areas and jhuggis. BJP’s Bhatia, a Punjabi, had a larger support base in upscale neighbourhoods while Pathak, a Purvanchali, got more support from other areas.

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Another aspect that seems to have worked in AAP’s favour was trouble in the BJP unit. The BJP had too many ticket seekers from the area including former MLA R P Singh, state vice-president Rajan Tiwari, spokesperson Harish Khurana, Purvanchal morcha leader Sonia Sinha, district general secretary Suresh Gupta, standing committee chairperson Chail Bihari Goswami, and district president Rajesh Goel. Sources in the party said some ticket seekers did not participate in campaigning with much enthusiasm after being denied a chance. “This is now becoming a perennial problem for the party, where whenever someone gets a ticket, the other aspirants either do not support or try to sabotage their campaign. The central leadership must look into it,” said a senior BJP leader.