It was a crushing defeat for the heavyweights including Chief Ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi of BJP, which was routed by the AAP in Delhi polls and could only manage three seats in the 70-member Assembly.
BJP’s “trump card”, former IPS officer Bedi, who was anointed as the party’s face just three weeks ahead of the polls, lost from Krishna Nagar, considered to be a ‘safe’ seat. Bedi lost to Aam Aadmi Party’s S K Bagga.
The Krishna Nagar constituency has been a stronghold of BJP with Harsh Vardhan winning it five times in the past.
Another new entry into the party was Krishna Tirath, a former Congress veteran who had joined BJP ahead of the elections causing much embarrassment to Congress.
The move, however, didn’t work as Tirath lost to AAP’s Hazari Lal Chauhan by a huge margin of 34,638 votes in Patel Nagar constituency.
Senior BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi, who had won from West Delhi’s Janakpuri constituency for a record five times, lost to AAP’s Rajesh Rishi, whom he had defeated in the 2013 poll.
Rishi won by a huge margin of 25,580 votes.
Ram Vir Singh Bidhuri, former Delhi NCP President who was contesting from Badarpur area, lost to AAP’s Narayan Dutt Sharma by a record margin of 47,583 votes.
Bidhuri had emerged victorious from the constituency in 1993, 2003 and 2013 Assembly elections.
The party had also fielded at least 10 municipal councillors including a current mayor and three former mayors from the BJP—led corporations.