AAP's Raghav Chadha Wins From Delhi's Rajinder Nagar By 20,000 Votes

Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Raghav Chadha on Tuesday won his first ever Delhi Assembly elections from the Rajinder Nagar constituency which falls under the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. He defeated his nearest rival BJP’s RP Singh by a margin of 20,058 votes. Congress candidate Rocky Tuseed finished third.

After his win, Chadha said that Arvind Kejriwal’s model of governance has won. 

Chadha replaced Vijender Garg, the AAP MLA who won in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections. 

Chadha told The New Indian Express that he chose this particular constituency because he grew up there and his family has lived in the area for 65 years. “It was the party’s decision that I must contest from Rajinder Nagar and I bowed down to the wishes of my leaders. Rajinder Nagar is a place where I was born and raised... I will be presenting a detailed manifesto in which I have divided my constituency in seven areas.” 

While Chadha has been fielded by AAP, there have been questions about why the party decided to replace a winning candidate from a constituency where the BJP has won historically between 1993 and 2013, except for in 2008 when a Congress candidate won. 

Chadha told The Quint , “The party gives different responsibilities at different times. The party has a bigger and better role for him. We are all a part of a family. Arvind Kejriwal is the family head. We take whatever responsibilities he gives us.” 

A chartered accountant by profession, Chadha has been associated with the AAP right from the beginning. He is a member of the Political Affairs Committee of AAP and is also a national spokesperson. He has also held the post of treasurer of the party. 

Chadha was put in charge of the South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and also contested from there. He lost to BJP’s Ramesh Bhiduri. However, he says that the issues for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are different. 

He told The Quint, “It was an election to chose the prime minister. Everyone was asking ‘Modi vs Who?’ –  there was no one. Today, the same people are saying that Delhi’s election is for the chief minister. In this election, it’s ‘Kejriwal vs Who?’ – there is no one.”