New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) As Parvesh Singh Verma, BJP’s Jat leader, dealt a crushing blow to AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal in the Assembly elections, the development prompted the poll watchers to assess the damage to the ruling party by the small yet significant Jat community in the national capital.
New Delhi seat, which saw electoral contest between Kejriwal and Parvesh Verma is not a Jat dominated seat but the latter’s victory shows that they have reposed faith in him and rather a Jat face again, as against previous 2015 and 2020 elections.
There are about 10 constituencies where Jat voters are in considerable numbers and contribute to about 10 per cent of the electorate.
Here is how the electorate voted in seats with Jat population.
In Mehrauli, a constituency with a significant Jat population voted in favour of BJP candidate Gajendra Singh Yadav, making him victorious with a slender margin of about 1,700 votes over AAP rival Mahendra Chaudhary.
In Najafgarh, another Jat dominated seat, BJP’s Neelam Pahalwan trounced closest AAP candidate Tarun Kumar by about 29,000 votes.
In Bijwasan, Kailash Gahlot, the erstwhile minister in Kejriwal government won on BJP ticket. He defeated AAP nominee Surendra Bhardwaj by a margin of over 11,000 votes.
Palam, a key Jat constituency in South Delhi, with an adequate Jat population voted in favour of BJP’s Kuldeep Solanki.
He emerged victorious with over 8,000 votes while AAP’s Joginder Solanki came second.
In Matiala seat, BJP’s Sandeep Sehrawat was leading over AAP’s Sumesh Shokeen after 28 rounds of counting. He garnered over 1.44 lakh votes, surging ahead of its AAP rival by over 27,000 votes.
In Vikaspuri, BJP’s Pankaj Kumar Singh was leading over AAP’s Mahinder Yadav by over 9,000 votes.
Nangloi, a key constituency boasting of huge Jat population, voted for BJP’s Manoj Kumar Shokeen. He got more than 75,000 votes polled, about 25,000 more than the closest AAP candidate Raghuveer Shokeen, who was polled about 49,000 votes.
Narela seat saw BJP’s Raj Karan Khatri vanquishing AAP’s Sharad Kumar by over 8,000 votes.
Mundka seat, another Jat-dominated constituency, saw BJP’s Gajender Drall defeating AAP’s Jasbir Kalra by over 10,000 votes.
In Rithala, another Jat constituency, BJP’s Kulwant Rana pulled off an easy win over AAP’s Mohinder Goyal by over 29,000 votes.
–IANS
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