The Bharatiya Janata Party swept three of the four wards in the Patparganj assembly segment and all three in the Shakur Basti constituency held by senior Aam Aadmi Party leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain -- both targets of sustained attacks over corruption by the saffron party -- in the MCD elections.
The BJP had mounted unrelenting attacks on Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia and jailed minister Jain in the run-up to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, the results of which were announced on Wednesday.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena had ordered a probe into the Delhi government's now-scrapped excise policy that had led to a CBI raid on locations associated with Sisodia. The BJP said the AAP had used the excise policy to "receive kickbacks" and promised that Sisodia, who was "instrumental" in framing it, would "face the music and the law".
In Patparganj, Sisodia's assembly constituency, the BJP has won three of four wards.
The BJP's Renu Chaudhary bagged the Patparganj ward by 403 votes against the AAP candidate while the saffron party's Ravinder Singh Negi won from Vinod Nagar ward by a margin of 2,311 against the AAP's Kuldeep Bhandari. In Mandawali, the BJP's Shashi Chandna defeated the AAP's Reena Tomar by 186 votes.
The AAP only managed victory in one seat -- Mayur Vihar Phase II -- where its candidate Devender Kumar won.
The saffron party fared even better in Jain's assembly segment, winning all three municipal wards -- Saraswati Vihar, Paschim Vihar and Rani Bagh -- in his Shakur Basti constituency.
While Sikha Bhardwaj bagged the Saraswati Vihar ward by 3,150 votes against the AAP's Urmila Gupta, Vinneet Vohra beat AAP nominee Shalu Duggal by 2,044 votes in Paschim Vihar. Jyoti Aggarwal won for the saffron party from Rani Bagh against Mithlesh Pathak by 1,387 votes.
Jain, who is in jail in an Enforcement Directorate case, bore the brunt of the BJP's attack, especially after purported videos of him getting a massage and receiving visitors in his cell came to light.
The BJP had accused the Delhi minister of receiving special treatment in jail and demanded his dismissal by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The AAP ended the BJP's 15-year stint in the MCD -- trifurcated in 2012 into north, south and east corporations and unified this year -- by winning 134 seats in what turned out to be a closer-than-expected contest. The majority mark in the 250-ward civic body is 126 while the BJP secured victory in 104 wards.
