Closely fought seat, and the gateway to east Delhi

Most seats in east Delhi, home to a large Purvanchali population, tend to follow a predictable trend, with voters rarely allowing new contenders to break into well-established strongholds.

- Snehil Sinha and Karn Pratap Singh

NEW DELHI: This holds true for Patparganj, a constituency that has remained loyal to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) since 2013 despite some close fights.

This time, the contest appears harder to call.

Former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, a three-time MLA and one of the AAP's most prominent faces, is not contesting from Patparganj after having won the seat by a hair's breadth in 2020. Instead, the party has fielded civil services coach Avadh Ojha, a political newcomer who joined the AAP only in December.

Ojha faces off against two seasoned figures who have been active in the constituency for years—the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Ravinder Singh Negi and the Congress's Chaudhary Anil Kumar.

The Patparganj constituency presents a contrast between upper middle-class residential societies and lower-income neighbourhoods.

However, across this divide, residents share common grievances—water quality, civic infrastructure, parking shortages, and monsoon flooding. These issues are expected to be key in deciding the outcome of this high-stakes contest.

The constituency Patparganj has a diverse demographic mix. According to the final electoral rolls, it has 226,310 voters—122,194 men, 104,100 women, and 16 third-gender electors.