AAP vs ex-AAP vs ex-AAP: A riveting contest on cards

There is no assembly constituency in the Capital where the stage is set for a contest as riveting as Bijwasan's.

- Karn Pratap Singh

By the time the dust settled after the tense counting day during the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) candidate Bhupinder Singh Joon had eked out a victory against Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Sat Prakash Rana by a mere 753 votes a razor-thin margin of 0.6%, the smallest in that election.

This time, the contest is layered with even more intrigue the three main candidates squaring off from the seat this time are an AAP leader, and two former AAP leaders.

The BJP has fielded Kailash Gahlot, a 50-year-old AAP defector and former Kejriwal cabinet member who switched sides last November. The Congress has put forward Colonel Devinder Kumar Sehrawat, 59, who previously won the Bijwasan seat in 2015 as an AAP candidate.

The AAP's new face for the constituency is 47-year-old Surender Bhardwaj, husband of the party's sitting councillor from Raj Nagar. Bhardwaj, who ran unsuccessfully in the 2013 elections on a Samajwadi Party ticket, replaces Joon in a bid to counter anti-incumbency.

Joon's candidacy in 2020 had replaced Sehrawat, whose membership was suspended by the AAP in 2016 over alleged antiparty activities and later disqualified in 2019 after joining the BJP. The bitter history among these candidates has made the race a closely watched spectacle.

Adding to the drama, the sidelined leaders have stirred discontent within their parties.

Rana, the BJP's three-term MLA who narrowly lost in 2020, expressed his disappointment after being dropped in favour of Gahlot, whom he labelled "an outsider." Rana even held panchayat meetings to gauge whether he should contest as an independent.

When contacted, however, Rana said, "After the panchayat meetings, I have decided not to contest the elections. I along with my supporters will work for the party's benefits in the elections."