Remote port forwarding

I have a linux VM on azure cloud and a remote system.
I am trying to get port forwarding to work. So far I have the folloowing.

private void createConn()
{
try
{
if (!client.IsConnected)
{
client.Connect();
Console.WriteLine("Successful!!!!");
client.SendKeepAlive();
var port = new ForwardedPortRemote("127.0.0.1", 22, "127.0.0.1", 22222);

                client.AddForwardedPort(port);
                Console.WriteLine("port.Start");
                port.Start();
                Console.WriteLine("Hold port open..");
               port.Stop();
                Console.WriteLine("port closed");
                client.Disconnect();

            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            ErrorLog.Error("Connection Failed!!!", e.Message);
        }
    }

The code runs fine but my connection gets refused when I try to run "ssh user@localhost -p 22222" in my azure VM. Do you have any idea what I am missing here?

Start at createConn and the ForwardedPortRemote entry point, then reproduce the reported connection-refused result from the Azure VM using the shown arguments. Check the port and client lifecycle around port.Start(), port.Stop(), and client.Disconnect(); done means the expected remote forwarding behavior is documented or reproduced with a confirmed fix.