Tarvinder Singh Marwah defeated Manish Sisodia in Jangpura by a margin of nearly 700 votes.
New Delhi: Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and the former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, conceded defeat in the Jangpura constituency on Saturday.
BJP’s Tarvinder Singh Marwah defeated Sisodia by a margin of nearly 700 votes.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Marwah secured 38,859 votes while Sisodia secured 38,184 votes. Congress’ Farhad Suri could only manage 7,350 votes.
Situated in South-East Delhi, Jangpura remained a high profile constituency after Sisodia switched seats from Patparganj to Jangpura.
AAP, which relies heavily on the support of slum-dwellers, found that this time the people living in jhuggi jhopris voted for the BJP. Jangpura is home to many jhuggi jhopri (JJ) clusters, a key voter base for AAP.
The JJ clusters near Lajpat Railway Colony, housing over 5,000 families, face poor living conditions, including inadequate sewage, stagnant water, and limited basic amenities. While initiatives like free electricity, water, and toilet construction have helped, residents feel these efforts are insufficient.
Talking to The Sunday Guardian, Rinku and Harsh, residents of JJ clusters said, “While there is happiness over free electricity and free bus rides for women, we continue to face sewage problems, which become a major issue during the rainy season, along with stagnant water.”
“We were fed up with this, and that is why we voted for BJP this time. People voted for change because AAP failed to fulfill its promises and betrayed us while we continued to live in poor conditions”, they added.
Notably, Jangpura was once a Congress stronghold, and the saffron party had never won an election from this seat. However, this time, Marwah has rewritten history.
In Jangpura, Sisodia faced the charge of being an outsider, with Marwah, who had won thrice from the constituency in the past, positioning himself as the local candidate. The saffron party’s campaign focused on the ‘local vs outsider’ narrative, while Sisodia relied on freebies.
It is also worth noting that Marwah was previously a Congress loyalist but switched to the BJP in 2022.