Arvind Kejriwal<\/a> has lost his re-election bid from the New Delhi seat to former two-time BJP MP Parvesh Verma<\/a>, whom the party had held back from contesting last year’s Lok Sabha election.<\/p>\n

Mr Kejriwal finished around 1,200 votes behind his rival, with the Congress’ Sandeep Dikshit third, a set of results that will also reignite talk over the rift between the two parties – both members of the stuttering INDIA bloc<\/a> – and if an alliance may have allowed the AAP boss to retain his seat if not his government.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, ‘giant-slayer’ Mr Verma, a potential future Chief Minister following in the footsteps of his father, Sahib Singh Verm , is expected to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah.<\/p>\n

Arvind Kejriwal has held the New Delhi seat since 2013, when he beat Congress stalwart and then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to herald what would be the AAP’s decade-long rule of Delhi.<\/p>\n

The AAP boss’ defeat – announced minutes after his former deputy, Manish Sisodia, surrendered his contest in Janpgura – underlined the scale of his party’s rout in this election.<\/p>\n

Bidding for a third consecutive term, Mr Kejriwal and the AAP are, instead, set for a humiliating defeat; at 1pm, the BJP was leading in 48 of Delhi’s 70 Assembly seats and the AAP in 22.<\/p>\n

Instead, defeat for Mr Kejriwal is being seen as the ‘end’ of the AAP, particularly since two of its three most high-profile leaders – Mr Kejriwal and Mr Sisodia, both were jailed over corruption in the city’s liquor excise policy – have lost, and a third – Chief Minister Atishi is trailing.<\/p>\n

\u200bArvind Kejriwal has lost his re-election bid – to former two-time BJP MP Parvesh Verma, who had been held back from contesting last year’s Lok Sabha election – from the New Delhi seat.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arvind Kejriwal has lost his re-election bid from the New Delhi seat to former two-time BJP MP Parvesh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":55442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t