New Delhi, Mar 3: Making a complete sweep in six out of the seven seats in the capital, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday fortified its position by scaling down the victory margin of the Congress nominee Meira Kumar in the difficult Chandi Chowk constituency, which witnessed a neck-to-neck race till the last minute."Not only are we back in full force in the capital but we have also substantially reduced the margin vis-a-vis that in the previous election," BJP spokesman Govind Acharya told "The Financial Express' on Tuesday. The single constituency where the Congress has continued to maintain its hold has however seen a substantial decline in the margin this time round with the lead by the Congress candidate Meira Kumar being reduced to mere 4,500 from the last time's 20,000.
The Sonia factor has had only a limited success in the capital which had led to a single gain for the Congress in the capital. "The Sonia factor was the only saving grace for the Congress in the capital," he added. Had it notbeen for this, the BJP would have totally routed the Congress this time round.
The BJP consolidated its position further in South Delhi with the old timer Sushma Swaraj increasing her margin to 1,16,713 votes which was higher than the previous elections.
A major stregthening in the margins for the BJP has come about in the New Delhi constituency where the fight between the bureaucrat-turned politician Jagmohan and a close Gandhi confidant R K Dhawan saw a much prophesied victory for the former.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
