The Hindu : New Delhi News : Youth triumphs in `Battle of 40 vs. 80'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 14, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Youth triumphs in `Battle of 40 vs. 80'

By Our Staff Reporter

Ajay Maken, winner from New Delhi seat. Photo: V. Sudershan

NEW DELHI, MAY 13. Considered a "safe" seat for the Bharatiya Janata Party and a stronghold of the outgoing Union Minister for Tourism and Culture, Jagmohan, in particular, it fell into the lap of the Delhi Assembly Speaker, Ajay Maken, by a comfortable margin.

While the day began on the right note for Mr. Jagmohan - he was leading in the so-called VIP constituency of New Delhi during the first few rounds of the counting - the luck soon changed in favour of Mr. Maken. After a few tense moments for both candidates, the trends changed and as the Congress camp gave vent to their feelings through loud sloganeering, Mr. Jagmohan decided to leave the counting centre even before the process was over.

Surprisingly, the trump card for Congress were not just the votes from Yamuna Pushta most of which, as expected, were polled in favour of Mr. Maken but also the government employees' votes. "We had performed very badly in Sarojini Nagar last time. But this time, the difference is barely 1700 votes. That has been one of our winning factors. This is a positive message from the government employees. Obviously there is no "feel good" factor among them," said the winner.

For Mr. Maken, who began his day with a visit to the Nizammuddin Dargah, the good news did not come as a complete surprise. "People had been saying that Jagmohan is likely to win but in the last few days the trend had changed. I was quite confident," said Mr. Maken who thanked the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and party workers for his victory.

About 380 votes were not taken into account as the electronic voting machine from Balwant Rai Mehta Vidyalaya in Lajpat Nagar started giving an error. "The Election Commission has decided that those votes would not be taken into account because of the wide margin between the two candidates," said the Returning Officer for New Delhi, Sanjiv Kumar.

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