Former Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra (centre) and former Delhi in-charge PC Chacko at a presser where they conceded defeat on the day of the counting of votes for the assembly elections
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday blamed Congress' disastrous performance in the just concluded Delhi assembly elections for the saffron party not being able to win power, despite securing a vote share of approximately 39 per cent.
"The sudden disappearance of Congress was responsible for BJP's defeat in the Delhi assembly polls since it led to a direct fight between the BJP and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)," said Javadekar, who was one of the incharges of BJP's poll campaign in the assembly elections.
Despite securing a vote share of approximately 39 per cent, its highest since 1993, the BJP sent candidates from just eight constituencies in the 70-member assembly. AAP, which pocketed a vote share of 53.46 per cent, returned 62 candidates. Congress, on the other hand, just got a 4.6 per cent vote share, with its candidates losing their security deposit in 63 of the 66 seats they contested.
Only three of its candidates Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Devender Yadav from Badli and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar managed to save their deposits.
Security deposit of a candidate is forfeited if he/she fails to secure one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency.
Most of Congress candidates got less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled in their respective constituencies.
Delhi Congress chief Shubhash Chopra's daughter Shivani Chopra, who was the party candidate from Kalkaji, also could not save her deposit.
Former Delhi Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri's daughter Priyanka Singh also forfeited her deposit.
The party's campaign committee chairman Kirti Azad's wife, Poonam Azad, lost badly and stood fourth, polling only 2,604 (2.23) votes.
(with PTI inputs)
