BJP wins Cantt poll, Congress vote share rises

The BJP and the Congress on Monday managed to retain five and two seats respectively in the Delhi Cantonment Board elections. The newbie AAP, which had won the Delhi Cantonment seat in the last Assembly poll, could grab only one of the total eight seats. While the Congress managed to increase its vote share by 11.36 per cent in comparison to the last state elections, the votes secured by the saffron party decreased by about 2.09 per cent. The Cantonment Board results came as a major blow to the AAP whose vote share decreased by about 14.83 per cent in comparison to the Assembly elections.

Of the eight Cantonment Board seats, the BJP won five, the Congress two and one was bagged by the AAP. Those who won the elections are BJP’s Priyanka Chaudhary, Rachna Kadiyan, Kavita Jain, Jagat Singh and Narender Chaudhary; Congress’ Sandeep Tanwar and Vimal Chaudhary and AAP’s Nand Kishore. In the last elections, the BJP had secured five seats, Congress two and one was won by an Independent candidate, who had later joined the saffron outfit.

The Delhi Cantonment seat had witnessed a photo finish of sorts during the last Assembly elections, which had resulted in the victory of AAP’s Surender Singh over BJP’s Karan Singh Tanwar, with a little over 300 votes. The voter percentage polled by different parties in the Cantonment Board elections is being interpreted in the political circles as the beginning of the fall of the AAP in the city politics. Senior Congress leader Chattar Singh said that the board results clearly indicated that his party was gaining back its voters it had lost to the AAP. “This is just the beginning of the end of the AAP. There is a drop in the vote share of the BJP as well.”

But Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said the poll results clearly showed that the saffron party was the first choice of the people of Delhi. “The voters have shown that they do not believe in the fractured mandate. Delhi believes in Prime Minister Narender Modi’s slogan — Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas.”

Traditionally, the Delhi Cantonment Assembly seat has been a stronghold of the BJP. It was BJP’s Karan Singh Tanwar who first won the seat by securing 23,260 votes against Congress candidate Kiran Chaudhary, who got just 14,391 votes in 1993. But Ms Chaudhary won the seat by defeating Mr Singh by a margin of over 3,000 votes in 1998 elections. Again, it was Mr Singh who defeated Ms Chaudhary by a margin of about 4,000 votes in 2003 polls.

The BJP candidate again won the seat in 2008 election, but this time by beating new Congress candidate Ashok Ahuja by over 7,000 votes.

Political pundits feel that the Cantonment Board results do not present an overall mood of the city, but it give a clear indication of how things may unfold during the February 7 Assembly elections.

The Congress, which was the only party to gain over 10 per cent vote share in the board elections, had bagged 14 seats by securing 34.5 per cent votes in the 1993 polls. The party got 52 seats by securing 47.8 per cent votes in 1998 elections, 47 seats by polling 48.1 per cent votes in 2003, 43 seats by getting 40.3 per cent votes in 2008 and was reduced to just eight seats by getting 25.3 per cent votes in the last elections.

In the last Assembly elections, the BJP and its allies had won 32 seats by securing 33 per cent votes, the AAP got 28 seats by getting 29 per cent votes and the Congress won eight seats by polling 24.50 per cent votes. But in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured 46 per cent votes.