Delhi election results: 63 Congress candidates lose deposits

Delhi election results, Congress candidates, Delhi Congress candidates deposits, Delhi assembly election results

Congress's performance touched a record low in the Delhi Assembly election as the party bagged less than 5% of the total votes polled and 63 of its candidates lost their deposits.

The party, which ruled Delhi for 15 years on the trot under former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, failed to open its account for the second consecutive assembly election in Delhi.

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% 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).

Reacting on party's defeat, congress leader and Punjab cabinet minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot said his party was not defeated in the Delhi election as its tally remained at zero like in 2015, and so it was the BJP's loss.

"We were zero earlier, and this time too we are zero. So it's not our defeat. It's a defeat for the BJP," he told mediapersons here, referring to the election trends which gave the Congress no seat in the Delhi assembly election.