Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Manoj Tiwari who won the Delhi North East Lok Sabha seat, defeating his Congress rival and former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by a margin of 3,66,102 votes met her on Saturday, 25 May, to seek her blessings.
Tiwari visited the 81-year-old veteran at her East Nizamuddin residence after learning of her ill-health, said Delhi BJP media co-convener Neelkant Bakshi.
During the 20-minute meeting, he enquired after her health.
"The two leaders acknowledged that political rivals can have friendly and harmonious relations and Tiwari told Dikshit he treated her like his mother," Bakshi said.
Dikshit was defeated by 3.66 lakh votes by Tiwari from North East Delhi seat.
During a press conference, Tiwari had admitted he was "scared internally" to face the three-time Delhi chief minister and Congress veteran in the poll.
Dikshit took charge of Delhi Congress president in January and led the party in the general election.
Under her leadership, Congress candidates managed to get more votes and replaced AAP candidates on five of the seven Lok Sabha seats as nearest rivals to winning BJP candidates.
Tiwari got 7,87,799 (53.9 percent) votes, Dikshit got 4,21,697 (28.85 percent) votes.
Rahul Gandhi Took Revenge Against Sheila Dikshit: Tiwari
In a build up to the election barbs were exchanged between both parties. Diskhit was considered one of her party's heavyweight candidates in Delhi. However, Tiwari had disagreed.
“Rahul Gandhi took revenge against Sheila Dikshit by fielding her against me. She is 78 years old. She has become old now. Rahul Gandhi was angry with her and that is why this was done to her.”BJP’s Manoj Tiwari.
The Bhojpuri actor had maintained that he never saw her as a threat. "Someone asked me if Sheila Dikshit is contesting, will it be a problem? But I always said it was an interesting battle," said the Delhi BJP chief.
‘Very Disappointed,’ Says Diskhit
Sheila Dikshit termed her defeat as "very disappointing" and congratulated the BJP for their stellar performance.
“It is very disappointing, we should have won.”Congress’ Sheila Diskhit
However, she also saw a silver lining to her defeat. Dikshit who herself trailed by over 3.66 lakh votes against Tiwari in the North East Delhi constituency, was satisfied at the fact that Congress pushed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to the third place on most seats.
"That is a very good thing, we welcome it," she said.
BJP-led NDA government witnessed a remarkable victory in the elections, especially in the national capital of the country by winning all the seven seats.
BJP won 303 seats in this election, outperforming themselves in comparison to 2014 elections. Along with its allies, the party has secured total 351 seats. However, the Congress won only 52 seats and now face a threat to its state governments in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
AAP, which was confident about its grip in Delhi, came third with 1,90,856 votes.
(With inputs from NDTV and PTI)
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