Cong Chaudhary Prem Singh who never lost in 50 yrs defeated by AAP's Ashok Kumar

Cong Chaudhary Prem Singh who never lost in 50 yrs defeated by AAP's Ashok Kumar

IT WAS end of an era for Delhi Congress legislator Chaudhary Prem Singh, who earned the sobriquet of "Bheeshma Pitamah" for not losing a single election over the past 50 years, as his citadel in south Delhi was breached by a fledgling AAP.

Prem Singh holds a Guinness Book record for winning polls from 1958 regularly from a single constituency and from a single political party and AAP supporters were over the moon after Kumar pulled off this unlikely upset.

Eighty-year-old Chaudhary - a four-time legislator from Ambedkar Nagar constituency - was defeated by the Aam Aadmi Party's Ashok Kumar by 16,000 votes and ended up in the third spot as results for the Delhi Assembly polls came on Sunday. Bharatiya Janata Party's Khushi Ram Chunar with 24.569 votes came second.

Despite objections from a section of leaders, he was among the 42 sitting legislators u ho got the Congress ticket for the December 4 Assembly polls. Sources said "age" and "complacency" caused the defeat of the veteran leader who started his political career in 1958 as a municipal councillor and went on to win 10

elections.

AAP'S POLITICAL NOVICES

TOPPLE     HEAVYWEIGHTS:

Delhi poll results have thrown up several "giant killers" who led a life of anonymity and were political novices before they entered the electoral battle on AAP tickets.

Rakhi Birla. a former journalist with a private news channel, stole the thunder from Congress's Raj Kumar Chauhan. who was the PWD Minister in the Sheila Dikshit government. She defeated Chauhan by a margin of 10.585 votes in Mongolpuri constituency.

Hailing from the Valmiki community. Birla has humble origins as her mother works as a MCD sweeper. She defeated Chauhan on the anti-corruption plank. Chauhan was indicted by the Delhi Lokayukta in a land grab case but ihe Dikshii government had refused lo sack him.

Ashok Kumar, contesting from Ambedkar Nagar, not only defeated BJP stalwart Khushi Ram Chunar by 1.1670 votes, he also pushed veteran Congress leader Chaudhary Prem Singh, who has not lost any elections from this constituency since 1958. to the third place.

Known to be associated with cricket in his area, debutant Kumar defeated Singh, who got 19.753 votes, after securing a total of 36.239 votes.

Singh also holds a Limca book of records of winning ten consecutive terms from the same constituency as well as the same party.

Amongst other AAP candidates. Rajesh Garg won from the otherwise BJP stronghold of Rohini defeating   BJP  heavyweight  Jai Bhagwan Aggarwal by a margin of 1.872 voles.

An RT1 activisi and associated with the Congress for a long time. Garg's wife had contested the municipal election on the party ticket.

A former NSG commando Surendra Singh defeated BJP's Karan Singh Tanwar by a margin of 355 votes in the Delhi cantt constituency. He served the Indian Army for 14 years and fought in wars like Kargil and took part in operations Parakram. Sadbhavna. and Black Thunder (post 26/11 Mumhai terror attacks).

AAP's Veena Anand. a social activist, defeated BJP's Poornima Vidyarlhi by a margin of 6262 votes in Patel Nagar constituency.

AAP contestant Ashok Kumar Binny from Laxminagar constituency toppled Health Minister A K Walia by a margin of 7,752 votes.

He had. however, won the election standing as an independent candiate twice from his assembly. Connecting directly to the people. Binny used to invite suggestions for development works in his contituency from electors by writing letters to them. AAP had taken this idea as part of his manifesto and decided to set up 'Mohalla Sabhas'.