NEW DELHI: Krishna Nagar was supposed to be the BJP’s safest seat - a stronghold of traders and middle class professionals. But this time, the party has been swept away in the AAP tsunami.
It was a roller coaster ride for BJP candidate Kiran Bedi during the counting process. She was even leading at a point, but in the end she lost the seat by a margin of 2,277 votes. In the 2013 Assembly polls, BJP’s Harsh Vardhan had won the seat by a margin of 46,000 votes.
The BJP office in Chandra Nagar, which had been buzzing with activities until three days ago, remained closed on Tuesday. “If it was Doctor Sahab (Union Minister Harsh Vardhan) he would have won. In fact, leave alone the candidate, even the workers were parachuted from outside. They had no idea about the constituency,” said 41-year-old Ganesh Gupta, a mobile shop owner, who has voted for the BJP for the last 20 years - but switched loyalties this time.
“I voted for the BJP but knew that it was going to lose as they (AAP) started their campaign much before the BJP did and had a clear agenda. Let’s hope Kejriwal does something,” Manju Dikshit, ahouse wife, said.Ram Kumar Sahni, a 55-year-old BJP worker, was forced to switch off his phone since morning. “Since morning I have been getting jokes and one liners, people calling up asking what happened, why it happened, to which I have no answer as we were not involved,” said Sahni sitting outside a shop with friends to analyse the results.