Shakur Basti: AAP loses all 3 wards in Satyendar Jain’s constituency

The BJP has attacked Jain in recent weeks for allegedly receiving special treatment in Tihar jail, and several videos from his jail cell have emerged

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dropped 34 seats across the Capital as compared to the 2017 MCD elections, but the party was able to retain all three wards that fall within Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) minister Satyendar Jain’s assembly constituency of Shakur Basti, while also retaining three of the four wards in Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s Patparganj constituency.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain. (HT Photo)

The two ministers have been in the crosshairs of federal agencies – Jain is in jail for the last five months on a PMLA case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate, and Sisodia has been named by one of the accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation in an alleged liquor scam.

The BJP has attacked Jain in recent weeks for allegedly receiving special treatment in Tihar jail, and several videos from his jail cell have emerged. It has also targeted Sisodia over his alleged involvement with irregularities in the liquor policy. Both ministers have denied wrongdoing.

In the three wards under Jain’s constituency of Shakur Basti – Saraswati Vihar, Paschim Vihar and Rani Bagh – the BJP’s Shikha Bharadwaj won by 3,150 votes, Vineet Vohra by 2,044 votes, and Jyoti Aggarwal won by 1,387 votes, respectively. In 2017, too, the three wards were won by the BJP.

Jain won his assembly seat of Shakur Basti in 2020 by a margin of 7,667 votes against BJP candidate S C Vats.

Under Sisodia’s Patparganj assembly constituency, out of four wards – Mayur Vihar Phase-II, Patparganj, Vinod Nagar, Mandawali – the AAP won the Mayur Vihar Phase-II, with the remaining three going to the BJP.

The AAP’s Devendra Kumar won the Mayur Vihar Phase-II ward by 1,588 votes, but the BJP’s Renu Chaudhary won Patparganj (197) by 403 votes.

Ravinder Singh Negi won Vinod Nagar by 2,311 votes, and Shashi Chandna won the Mandawali ward by a slender margin of 186 votes. In 2017, the BJP won Mayur Vihar Phase-II, Mandawali and Patparganj, while Vinod Nagar was claimed by the AAP.

Sisodia narrowly won the assembly seat in 2020, trailing BJP’s Ravinder Singh Negi for several rounds, before pulling through at the end to win by around 3,000 votes.

HT reached out to AAP leaders for a comment but did not get one immediately.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said not only did the people of Delhi vote for the BJP in wards falling under Sisodia and Jain’s constituencies but a similar trend was also seen in wards falling under ministers Kailash Gahlot and Gopal Rai.

“This shows the people have totally rejected them and that they want these tainted ministers to be dropped from Kejriwal’s cabinet and party posts too,” he said.

Needs expert quote.