New Delhi, In a near-sweep, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
today decimated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress by recording a
landslide victory and is set to secure 67 of the 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly
elections, halting the Modi juggernaut in its tracks.
The AAP
has already won 48 seats and is leading in 19 seats as the counting of votes
progressed and is set to win more than 90 per cent of the seats, a feat
achieved only twice before in Sikkim and Bihar.
Arvind
Kejriwal, the former Revenue Service officer who led his party to a sensational
victory, won with a huge margin in the New Delhi constituency where the BJP
fielded Nupur Sharma, a novice, who came second and veteran Congress leader
Kiran Walia way behind at the third spot.
The
BJP’s humiliation was complete with its Chief Ministerial face Kiran Bedi
losing in the traditional stronghold of Krishna Nagar which was long held by
party veteran Harsh Vardhan.
The BJP
has so far won two seats and was leading in only one more. All its veterans had
to bite the dust. The party gambled on Bedi but relied on Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s image which still did not work for the party.
In an
election that was billed as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi but
rejected by BJP as such, the AAP wave spearheaded by its chief Arvind Kejriwal
knocked the two major parties and their veterans from their citadels.
In all
elections that followed the spectacular victory in the May Lok Sabha polls, the
BJP formed governments in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and emerged the
second largest party in Jammu and Kashmir with the highest vote share.
Congress,
which ruled the national capital for 15 years till December 2013, has been
reduced to zero.
Congress
stalwart and Chief Ministerial candidate Ajay Maken was pushed to the third
spot in Sadar Bazar where AAP candidate won. Following the debacle, Maken
resigned as Congress General Secretary taking responsibility.
The
AAP’s hurricane march could be gauged from the fact that it polled 54 per cent
of the popular votes while BJP got 32.4 per cent and the Congress 9.4 per cent.
In the
last elections, the BJP had emerged as the largest party with 31 seats, the AAP
28 and the Congress 8. Kejriwal formed a government with Congress support and
resigned after 49 days in February 2014 over the Lokpal issue.
Kejriwal
will take oath as Chief Minister on February 14 at the Ramlila Grounds, the
platform that launched him during the days of India Against Corruption, exactly
one year after he stepped down.
The scale of AAP’s victory was reminiscent of the victories
recorded by the Sikkim Sangram Party (SSP) which won all the 32 seats in the
assembly while the JD (U)-BJP alliance won 206 of the 243 seats in 2010.
In the
1991 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK-Congress alliance won 225 of
the 234 seats while in subsequent elections the DMK-Congress alliance won 221
of 234 seats.
As the
voting trends trickled in showing a massive landslide for AAP, Modi called
Kejriwal over phone to congratulate him on the victory. He assured Kejriwal of
Centre’s complete support in the development of Delhi.
Bedi
also congratulated Kejriwal saying “full marks to Arvind.” Maken, whose party
has been decimated in the elections, resigned as Congress General Secretary
taking full responsibility for the debacle.
In his
address to his supporters, Kejriwal saluted the people of Delhi for doing a
“wonder” by giving them a landslide victory and asked party workers not to get
carried away by the mandate.
“You
have done a wonder. When you are on the path of truth, all the forces of
universe come together to help you. I salute the people of Delhi. It’s a
victory of truth,” he said.
The
defeat for BJP was all the more bitter because it had won all the seven Lok
Sabha seats in the last year’s general elections. The party’s gamble of making
Bedi its Chief Ministerial candidate back fired.
The only
saving grace for the BJP was victory of its former state unit president
Vijender Gupta who won from Rohini.
Kejriwal
thanked Modi for his greetings and said he would like to meet him soon to
discuss issues related to Delhi. He told the Prime Minister that he will need
the Centre’s help.
Expressing
happiness over the party’s performance, AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said, “it was
not just under class, but the middle class also voted for AAP. The (Narendra
Modi) juggernaut seems to have halted at least for now.”
Hailing
AAP’s performance, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Baneerjee called the
election result a turning point in the country’s political situation.
“Delhi
election is a turning point of the present political situation. Shows political
vendetta has no place in a democracy. Country needed this change,” she said in
a tweet.
“This is
a victory for the people and a big defeat for the arrogant and those who are
doing political vendetta & spreading hate among people,” Banerjee said in
another tweet.
Reeling
under the debacle, the BJP admitted that it is a “big setback” but asserted
that it was not a referendum on the central government as people voted on local
issues.
The
party also said that Delhi’s loss is a “collective failure” of the party and
the defeat cannot be thrown on any single individual, seen as an attempt to
deflect any blame on Modi. (Source- www.newsroompost.com)
Hmm ..
जवाब देंहटाएंएक टिप्पणी भेजें