NEW DELHI: In a confidence booster to the Aam Aadmi Party, its candidate Durgesh Pathak on Sunday trounced arch-rival BJP’s Rajesh Bhatia in the Rajinder Nagar assembly by-election with a margin of 11,555 votes.
While AAP bagged 55.76 per cent votes, the saffron party could muster 39.92 per cent. Congress finished a distant third with just 2.79 per cent votes. As many as 545 votes went to NOTA’s account. “The counting started at 8.30 am and all 16 rounds were completed by noon. AAP candidate Durgesh Pathak has defeated his immediate rival Rajesh Bhatia (of BJP) by 11,555 votes,” Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh announced.
At the start of counting, Pathak had a slender lead of 1,500 votes over Bhatia, which reduced to around 1,000 votes at the end of the fifth round. After the sixth round, however, Pathak galloped with a margin of 3,000 votes, which rose to over 10,000 by the ninth round. He eventually won the by-poll with a margin of over 11,000 votes.
AAP leaders, including the party’s national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, congratulated Pathak over his victory. The bypoll had taken place on June 23 with a significantly low turnout at 43.75 per cent as compared to 2020 polls. For a single constituency, 14 candidates were in the fray. However, it was largely seen as a battle between AAP and BJP. This by-election was necessitated in the wake of AAP leader Raghav Chadha leaving the seat after being elected to the Rajya Sabha.