NEW DELHI: AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak (31) after sweeping a clean win in the Rajinder Nagar by-poll election gave a victory speech on Sunday. Expressing his disbelief, he said “Mere gaon mein koi zila panchayat sadasya nahi bana hai, vidhayak to bahot door ki baat hai…” (Till date no one has become a Zilla Panchayat member in my village, becoming an MLA is quite far-fetched).
Overwhelmed with the results, Pathak said, “A simple boy from a village who came to Delhi for IAS preparation has now become an MLA. This is only possible under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal.”
“I only had Rs 5 lakh in my account and with that I have come so far in this battle. I hope that I could prove everyone who supported me that they made the right choice,” Pathak added. His supporters were seen sharing pictures of him with captions saying, ‘Bhaiyya Vidhayak hai hamare...” (Our brother is an MLA).
A post-graduate from Prayagraj University, Pathak hails from Sikohara village near Gorakhpur and he came to Delhi to prepare for civil services examination. In 2011, he joined the Jan Lokpal movement as a young idealistic volunteer. As the movement turned into a political party, Durgesh played an important part in building a robust organization in Delhi.
In 2015 Delhi Assembly election, he was made in charge of the organization in 35 out of 70 constituencies, and the party won 34 of them. He was later sent to Punjab to prepare a strong organizational set-up before the Punjab Assembly elections in 2017.
Meanwhile, senior leaders congratulated Pathak for his win. Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh tweeted, “Durgesh Pathak has proved that hard work definitely pays off. He worked day and night for the party for the last 11 years.”
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, “It is the effect of the growing love for Arvind Kejriwal across the country that BJP is not able to remove him from the hearts of the people even by putting in all the strength of the central government.”