Delhi polls: Not all 'party hoppers' turned out lucky

NEW DELHI: 'Party hoppers' who were in fray in the Delhi polls on tickets of three major parties could not put up a great show.

While Alka Lamba and Sahi Ram who left Congress and BSP respectively to join AAP managed to win, prominent hoppers including former Union minister and Congress leader Krishna Tirath, former AAP MLA Vinod Kumar Binny and former Speaker of Delhi Assembly M S Dhir, who fought on BJP tickets lost the elections.

Five-time MLA from Matia Mahal, Shoaib Iqbal, who recently joined Congress from the JD-U, also could not survive the AAP wave and lost his seat.

Tirath, who was a Cabinet minister in the UPA government, joined BJP and was given a ticket from Patel Nagar where she lost to AAP's Hazari Lal Chauhan by a margin of 34,638 votes.

Binny left AAP early in 2014 over resentment in allocation of cabinet berth and joined BJP recently. He was fighting against his former party colleague Manish Sisodia from the Patparganj seat, where he lost by a margin of 28,761 votes.

While Dhir was BJP candidate from Jangpura, where he lost to AAP's Praveen Kumar with a margin of 20,450 votes.

Kiran Bedi, who was a part of Team Anna and had worked closely with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal during the anti-graft campaign, joined BJP and lost in its bastion Krishna Nagar.

Former DU President Lamba who fought on a AAP ticket from Chandi Chowk defeated her nearest rival from BJP.

Sahi Ram, a former BSP councillor who fought on an AAP ticket from Tughlakabad also won the election.