Delhi Chief Minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi has retained her incumbent seat of Kalkaji, defeating Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Ramesh Bidhuri by a margin of over 3,500 votes.
Atishi secured a total of 52,058 votes, as compared to 48,478 votes polled by Bidhuri, according to the data shared by the Election Commission of India.
Congress leader Alka Lamba, who was the third major candidate from the seat, emerged as a distant second runner-up with only 4,367 votes.
Kalkaji was one of the constituencies in focus, as the sitting MLA, Atishi, was appointed as the chief minister by the ruling AAP after Arvind Kejriwal resigned in September last year.
The electoral contest also drew attention as Bidhuri came under criticism due to his controversial remarks over Atishi's surname during the campaign trail. “Atishi, who was Marlena, is now Singh. She has even changed her father," the BJP leader was reported as saying at a poll rally on Jan. 5.
Following his remarks, Atishi had broke down at a press conference. “Why abuse my old, ailing father?” she had said.
In the last assembly polls held in 2020, Atishi had won the Kalkaji seat against BJP's Dharambir Singh by a margin of 11,393 votes.
Delhi witnessed a saffron sweep as the BJP secured a two-third majority win in the assembly elections. The party bagged 48 out of the 70 assembly constituencies of the national capital, whereas the AAP's tally slipped to 22. The Congress has again failed to open its account.
In the last assembly elections, the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP had secured a landslide mandate of 62 seats, whereas the BJP was restricted to eight constituencies. The Congress had drawn a blank.
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