Amid the Bharatiya Janata Party's sweeping victory in the Delhi assembly polls, Chief Minister Atishi and three ministers in the outgoing Aam Aadmi Party government -- Gopal Rai, Mukesh Ahlawat and Imran Hussain -- managed to secure wins on Saturday, offering a rare consolation for the party as its big guns, including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, suffered defeats.
Atishi emerged victorious in Kalkaji, defeating Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Ramesh Bidhuri by a margin of 3,521 votes. A key strategist for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Atishi's win stands out as one of the few success stories for the party.
In Babarpur, Rai retained his seat with a margin of 18,994 votes over BJP's Anil Kumar Vashisht. The environment minister in the outgoing government, Rai is a three-time MLA from the constituency. He managed to hold on despite the AAP's overall poor performance.
Ahlawat secured victory in Sultanpur Majra, defeating BJP's Karam Singh Karma by 17,126 votes. Ahlawat, who served as a minister in the previous AAP government, maintained his stronghold in the reserved constituency, one of the few where the Kejriwal-led party performed well.
Hussain, the food and civil supplies minister, won from Ballimaran with the highest margin among the AAP's prominent faces, defeating BJP's Kamal Bagri by 29,823 votes. Hussain's victory provided one of the few bright spots for the AAP in the Old Delhi region.
Meanwhile, in a high-stakes battle in the New Delhi constituency, BJP's Parvesh Verma defeated Kejriwal by 4,089 votes, securing 30,088 votes against the AAP supremo's 25,999. In Jangpura, Sisodia lost to BJP's Tarvinder Singh Marwah by just 675 votes, while minister Saurabh Bharadwaj was defeated by BJP's Shikha Roy in Greater Kailash by 3,188 votes.
With leads in 48 of the 70 seats, the BJP is set to reclaim power in Delhi after more than 26 years, while the AAP, reduced to 22 seats, faces a major setback. The Congress remains on track for its third consecutive electoral washout in the capital.
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