Sisodia launches campaign, says constituency doesn't matter

New Delhi: A day after leaving the Patparganj seat held by him since 2013, AAP leader Manish Sisodia on Tuesday launched his election campaign by attending a 'Hanuman Chalisa' recital with local residents in his new constituency Jangpura. The former deputy chief minister of Delhi has in the past claimed himself to be a devout "Hanuman bhakt".

AAP has replaced Sisodia with coaching expert Avadh Ojha, who recently joined the party, from the Patparganj constituency. The elections for the 70-member Delhi As-sembly are due in February next year. Sisodia said he re-ceived a lot of love from the people as the education minis-ter and deputy chief minister.

"It does not matter which constituency one contests from. Even as the MLA from Patparganj and deputy CM, I did a lot of work for Jangpura and personally kept watch on building schools here. If I am elected as the MLA from Jangpura now, I will work for the whole of Delhi. It does not make any difference," he told reporters. In a post on X, Sisodia said he started campaigning in Jangpura with the recital of 'Hanuman Chalisa', seeking blessings of the deity at a temple in the Kilokari area of the constituency.

"O Lord Hanuman, I beseech you to shower your blessings on us for whatever we endeavour. The light of humanity always flickers in our hearts, wherever we are, whatever we do, we do it with remembering the god," Sisodia said in his post.

The former deputy CM earlier explained that the reason behind leaving the Patparganj seat for Ojha was the latter's "vision and devotion" towards education. However, the BJP has accused him of leaving the seat for a "safer" Jangpura, accusing he did nothing in Patparganj during his tenure as its MLA. In 2020, Sisodia pitted against a fresh face from the BJP Ravi Negi in Patparganj, barely managed to win with a thin margin of just over 3,500 votes.