BJP's Malhotra wins East Delhi seat by more than 90,000 votes

File photo

BJP candidate and former mayor Harsh Malhotra won the East Delhi seat in the Lok Sabha elections by 93,663 votes. AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar secured the second-highest numbers of votes

Malhotra won  6,64,819 votes and Kumar won 5,71,156 votes, according to the Election Commission of India.

The voting population of the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency is approximately 2.1 million  as of 2024. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the voter turnout was 61.70%, with 1,258,195 voters casting their ballots​.

East Delhi has seen a fluctuating political landscape with both the INC and BJP holding significant influence at different times.

In 2019, East Delhi seat was won by  BJP Candidate Gautam Gambhir, defeating  Arvinder Singh Lovely from the Indian National Congress (INC) and AAP's Atishi Marlena .

East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 7 Lok Sabha constituencies in the union territory.

The East Delhi constituency has eleven Assembly segments under it – Jangpura,Okhla,Trilokpuri,Kondli,Patparganj,Laxmi Nagar,Vishwas Nagar,Krishna Nagar,Gandhi Nagar,Shahdara,Seemapuri.

The parliamentary seat has predominantly witnessed a fierce contest between the BJP and  Congress.

H. K. L. Bhagat from the Indian National Congress (INC) was a dominant figure in East Delhi during the 1980s and early 1990s, winning four consecutive terms.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gained control of the constituency in the mid-1990s with Lal Bihari Tiwari winning three consecutive terms.

The BJP regained the constituency from Congress in 2014 and 2019, with Maheish Girri and Gautam Gambhir respectively winning the elections.

For the 2024 elections, BJP  has picked former mayor of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation Harsh Malhotra to contest from the East Delhi seat in the Lok Sabha polls. Malhotra will face Aam Aadmi Party's Kuldeep Kumar, who is currently a legislator from the Kondli Assembly seat, among the 10 segments of East Delhi Parliamentary seat.