Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates are leading in Burari and Sangam Vihar constituencies according to trends as counting of votes in the Delhi assembly elections 2020 began Tuesday.
AAP’s sitting MLA Sanjeev Jha was leading in Burari while Dinesh Mohaniya who is also the incumbent lawmaker was ahead in Sangam Vihar. Both these constituencies have substantial Purvanchali votes. These are also the onlt two seats where Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) contested in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
It was the first time the JD(U) had tied up with the BJP for an election outside Bihar. Nitish Kumar had even addressed a rally in Burari along with BJP’s Amit Shah where he where he accused the AAP of being against Purvanchalis, a term used to refer to people from east Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Burari is a suburban assembly seat that comes under the North West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. Sanjeev Jha who won the seat with a margin of 67,950 votes in 2015, is up against Shailendra Kumar of the JD(U) and Pramod Tyagi of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Sangam Vihar is one of 70 assembly constituencies in Delhi and falls under the South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. In the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, AAP’s Dinesh Mohaniya defeated Shiv Charan Lal Gupta of the BJP by 43,988 votes.
This time Mohaniya is again up against Gupta who contested on a JD(U) ticket this time. The Congress had fielded Poonam Azad from the seat.
The JD(U) has never won a seat in the Delhi Assembly. This is the first time that they have allied with the BJP in Delhi.
Sangam Vihar, believed to be Delhi’s biggest unauthorised colony, is in the heart of south Delhi and in close vicinity of affluent neighbourhoods such as Sainik Farm.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had campaigned in Sangam Vihar for Poonam Azad.
