Sajjan, Tytler pullout helped Congress

Efforts by Congress to reach out to Sikhs, enraged over giving party ticket to 1984 riots accused leaders, seemed to have paid dividends as it secured considerable votes in the community-dominated pockets in Lok Sabha polls in Delhi.

Congress withdrew candidatures of Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar at the last moment after the controversy over their alleged role in the anti-Sikh riots snowballed afresh.

The infamous shoe-throwing incident when a journalist targeted Home Minister P Chidambaram to protest the CBI clean chit to Tytler jerked the party into action and the poll result suggests that the pulling out of the two political heavyweights from fray has sent the right message to the community.

While DPCC chief J P Aggarwal, who was given Tytler's North-East Delhi seat, trounced BJP's B L Sharma Prem, Sajjan's brother Ramesh won from south Delhi defeating Ramesh Bidhuri of BJP.

In a number of Sikh-dominated assembly segments in the west Delhi parliamentary constituency like Tilak Nagar, Hari Nagar, Uttam Nagar and Rajouri Garden, Congress polled more votes than BJP, according to election data.

In Punjabi-dominated Uttam Nagar, Congress got 44,196 votes as against BJP's 36,607.