India, Feb. 9 -- Beyond the tree-lined avenues, glitzy boutiques and busy markets, swelling disenchantment over a growing pile of civic headaches in Greater Kailash cost the Aam Aadmi Party's Saurabh Bharadwaj the crucial assembly constituency in south Delhi on Saturday, one in an array of surprise setbacks for the ruling party.

Bharadwaj was defeated by the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Shikha Roy, a two-time councillor who ran a quiet, but effective, campaign that capitalised on voters' discontentment against one of the AAP's most senior leaders, a former cabinet minister and vice-chief of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

Previously, Roy had told HT, "I know I couldn't do much earlier because my hands were tied. But unlike AAP, I know what...