Patparganj Assembly Elections 2020 | Out of Delhi’s 70 Assembly constituencies, Patparganj is among the key seats from where VIP candidates are in fray. The holds importance as its MLA is the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia. Interestingly, it also falls under East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency that was won by BJP’s Gautam Gambhir last year by a huge margin. Delhi is slated to hold its polling on 8 February while counting is to be held on 11 February.
Results in last three years
From 1998 till 2013, the Patparganj seat had been a Congress stronghold. But things changed after AAP entered politics in 2013. Deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia won in 2015 against BJP’s Vinod Kumar Binny. Sisodia had also fought from this constituency in 2013 and won with 50,211 votes. In 2008, Congress Anil Kumar had won the seat in a close contest against BJP’s Nakul Bhardwaj.
In 2020, Manish Sisodia from the Aam Aadmi Party, Laxman Rawat from Congress and Ravi Negi BJP are in fray in this seat. Sisodia was a former journalist who entered public life as an anti-corruption crusader and later stepped into electoral politics. The BJP and Congress candidates are meanwhile, political greenhorns, in comparison to Sisodia. Both have served their party at district and ward level, but are contesting Assembly polls for the first time. Both are also Garhwalis who have migrated to Delhi from Uttarakhand hills.
File image of Delhi deputy chief minister, Manish Sisodia. PTI
Demography
Patparganj is also known for its industrial area known as Patparganj industrial area. A number of prominent civil servants and former diplomats of India have retired here and had colonies and apartments built for themselves by the Government. These are also otherwise popularly known as the IFS (Indian Foreign Service) and the IAS (Indian Administrative Service) colonies.
Demographic estimates shared by the three parties suggest that around 20 percent of voters in Patparganj are migrants from Uttarakhand. Their vote base comes second after the Purvanchali community (25 percent), Hindustan Times reported.
Following is a brief description of the Assembly constituency (as of 2015):
Constituency number: 57
Total electors: 2,14,338
Male: 1,21,069
Female: 93,253
Others: 16
Voter turnout in last Assembly Election: 65.16 %
Polling stations: 193
Major parties in the fray: In 2020, the three parties who will be fighting it out in this Assembly constituency are AAP, BJP, Congress.
In 2015, Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia had triumphed over his former colleague Vinod Kumar Binny by a margin of over 28,000 votes in the high-stakes Patparganj constituency.
In an impressive show of strength, the AAP leader recaptured the crucial seat, more than double the margin of victory in 2013 polls. Former AAP MLA Binny, who was fighting on a BJP ticket, finished second with 46,716 votes while Congress was reduced to a poor third with its candidate Anil Kumar totalling a mere 16,260. Sisodia, who was a minister in the previous Arvind Kejriwal government, called it a “victory of honesty” and hoped that it would now spawn a “positive competition” between Delhi and the Centre.
“I think the love and enthusiasm shown for a party is historic. Now, there will be a positive competition between the Centre and the state (Delhi). So, far it was negative competition and competition of corruption,” he said.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, born out of a fight against corruption, had scripted history, with a massive sweep of 67 seats in the 70-member House. BJP won 3 while Congress has drawn a blank. Asked as to how many seats the party had expected, Sisodia, who reached the counting centre early in the day, said, “We had prepared well on all 70 seats. We were positive about all of them.”
With inputs from PTI