BJP ends AAP’s three-term victory run in Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scathing takedown of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Arvind Kejriwal as “those who gave certificates of honesty to themselves but betrayed people with their corruption” with an equally biting characterisation of the Congress as a “sinking parasite that takes its allies down” summed up atmospherics in Delhi after the Assembly election results came out on Saturday.

AAP’s humiliation was evident in the numbers – from the giddy highs of 28 seats with a 29.5 per cent vote share in its debut performance in 2013 Assembly polls, to 67 seats and 54.3 per cent vote share in 2015 and 62 seats and 53.57 per cent in 2020 Assembly polls, Arvind Kejriwal’s party was decimated to 22 seats and a vote share loss of almost ten per cent at 43.57 per cent in the current polls.

The BJP got 45.56 per cent of the vote share and a whopping 48 seats in the 70-member Assembly in the polls that concluded on Saturday.

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An ashen-faced Kejriwal, who lost his own seat to BJP’s Parvesh Sahib Singh by 4089 votes, briefly surfaced to acknowledge defeat and continue to work for the people. “We will not only play the role of a constructive opposition but will also remain among the people and continue to serve them,” he said.

The Prime Minister’s post-election analysis summed up AAP’s tragedy as a party of “the common man” which seduced Delhiites with promises of eradicating corruption but ended up building a shining edifice for Kejriwal in his official residence.

“The party which was born in an anti-corruption movement, itself became corrupt. Its Chief Minister, all top ministers went to jail on corruption charges. They used to give certificates of honesty to themselves and paint everyone else black. But they were defrauding people. The liquor scam was a betrayal of the people. When people were suffering in the pandemic, they were making a ‘sheeshmahal (a glass palace)’ for the CM,” the PM quipped while speaking at a victory celebration at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.

And he pledged to “punish” AAP for their corruption. “I guarantee that the CAG report will be tabled in the first session of the Assembly. Corruption will be probed and whoever has looted the people will have to pay. This is Modi’s guarantee,” said the PM.

For the Congress, which did not win any seat but managed to upset AAP by winning higher number votes than the margin of BJP’s victory in as many as 14 constituencies, the PM reserved a scathing critique.

In fact, the AAP’s top leadership – Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Somnath Bharti — lost on account of the Congress candidates in these respective constituencies securing higher than the difference of the number of votes between the winner BJP and AAP.

“Congress has made a double hat-trick of zero. … They are giving themselves a gold medal for their non-performance. People just do not have any faith in the Congress. Congress is a parasite which sinks and takes its allies down with itself. Congress is finishing off its allies. They steal their allies’ issues and agendas and snatch their vote bank. In UP, they are trying to snatch SP and BSP’s vote bank. In Tamil Nadu, they are speaking DMK’s language. In Bihar too, it is spreading the poison of casteism and trying to finish the RJD. The same thing is happening in J&K and Bengal. It is clear in Delhi that whoever holds hands with the Congress is doomed,” Modi said.

Modi praised the middle class for its “wisdom” and said the BJP has always looked out for it, a reference to the recent announcement of the setting up of the eighth pay commission and tax breaks in the Union Budget.