South Indian candidates bite the dust in Delhi civic polls

Except for one, all South Indian candidates had to bite the dust in the Delhi municipal polls while a prominent Bengali candidate from BJP also lost the race.

In the municipal elections, BJP had fielded two south Indians -- one each from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, out of its 272 candidates while Congress has fielded only one.

Except for M Nagarajan of BJP, none of them managed to secure victory in the polls. Nagarajan, who is from Tamil Nadu, won the Pushp Vihar seat defeating Congress' Rakesh by a margin of 1,673 votes.

In Nangal Raya, Congress' Uma Naidu (43), who hails from Andhra Pradesh, lost to BJP's Radhika Setia by a margin of 1,630 votes. Naidu polled 8,798 votes while her rival got 10,428.

Naidu, who is a post graduate in English, is the richest among the south Indian candidates owning property worth Rs 1.75 crore, including immovable property of Rs 1.48 crore.

BJP's Keralite candidate Prasannan Pillai lost the municipal polls for the second consecutive time from Gharoli this time. Mayur Vihar which has a large chunk of Malayalee voters falls in this ward.

Pilli was not even the runner up in the ward where the Congress won while BSP came second.

Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party had also fielded a Malayali candidate P S Prasanna Kumar from New Seemapuri who came fourth.

G Jaya (34) from Tamil Nadu, a Forward Bloc candidate, lost her race in Mayur Vihar Phase-I ward.

73-year-old Anand Mukherjee, a Bengali fielded by BJP in Chittaranjan Park, lost to Congress' Virender Kasana by 1,594 votes. Mukherjee holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering. PTI SJY SPC 04181109