Arvind Kejriwal: Will he return to power for the fourth time?
Aam Aadmi party (AAP) national convenor arvind kejriwal has been the chief minister of delhi thrice so far. First from 2013 to 2014 (49 days), then from 2015 to 2020 and from 2020 to 2024. He has been continuously representing the New delhi assembly seat since 2013. In 2013, he created a stir in politics by defeating the then chief minister Sheila Dikshit by 25,864 votes. In 2015, he defeated BJP's Nupur Sharma by 31,583 votes, while congress candidate kiran Walia came third. In 2020, he retained the seat by defeating BJP's sunil Kumar Yadav by 21,697 votes.
This time the contest on the New delhi seat is going to be interesting. bjp has fielded mp Pravesh Sahib Singh Verma, who is a big name in delhi politics. congress has fielded Sheila Dikshit's son sandeep Dikshit, which has made the contest more interesting. But this time Kejriwal's party's anti-corruption image has been damaged by the allegations of liquor policy scam. kejriwal had also contested the varanasi Lok Sabha seat against prime minister Narendra Modi in 2014, but he had to face defeat by a huge margin of 3,71,784 votes.
Electoral analyst and senior journalist Adesh Rawal told ABP News, 'Ever since Arvind Kejriwal has entered politics, for the first time he is facing a tough challenge because both bjp and congress have fielded strong contenders. Secondly, New delhi is a seat on which there are a large number of government employees. The bjp government has recently made two big announcements - one, no tax will have to be paid till the income of Rs 12 lakh and second, the eighth pay commission. Therefore, the contest is not easy for Arvind Kejriwal. Anyone can win this seat.'
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