Headlines
AAP tsunami wrecks BJP, Congress; others mock at Mod
In one of the most stunning comebacks in Indian political history,
Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Tuesday scored a landslide
victory in Delhi, delivering to the BJP its first defeat since its
historic Lok Sabha triumph and reducing the Congress, which ruled the
capital for 15 years till 2013, to a virtual nonentity.
Tens of
thousands of jubilant AAP activists celebrated across the capital and in
many other cities as the 27-month-old party grabbed a sensational 67 of
the 70 seats in the Delhi assembly, leaving just three seats to the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- the highest victory margin for any party
in Delhi so far.
Although Delhi accounts for only 70 of the
4,120 assembly seats in the country, the AAP's spectacular showing had
its predictable fallout, with opposition parties and even BJP ally Shiv
Sena taking potshots at Modi.
The win gave the AAP, India's
youngest political outfit, 96 percent of seats in a legislature -
another record - and a new lease of life after it was written off
following its earlier turbulent 49-day stint in Delhi and the later
humiliating rout in the 2014 Lok Sabha battle.
So stunning and
sweeping was Tuesday's victory in what was supposed to be a tough
election with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself leading the BJP's
charge that many AAP leaders and workers who had slogged for months
broke into tears.
Kejriwal, 46, had teary eyes as AAP colleagues
repeatedly hugged him and lifted him in the air, and congratulatory
messages poured in from all over the country thick and fast. Outside his
home, thousands kept chanting the party's catchy line: "Paanch Saal,
Kejriwal!"
The Congress simply sank, with its chief campaigner
Ajay Maken resigning as the party's general secretary after he finished
third in his Sadar Bazar constituency. Most Congress candidates lost by
huge margins, one by 95,000 votes.
The BJP suffered far more
humiliation, with its chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi, who had
been personally picked by Modi, losing to a little known advocate of the
AAP. Two of the three BJP winners scraped through by just 5-6,000 votes
in contrast to the giant margins scored by AAP candidates.
With
the BJP subdued, Modi, who led an aggressive campaign against Kejriwal
and called him a "Naxalite" (Maoist) who should be banished to the
forests, congratulated the AAP leader and offered his government's full
cooperation.
The AAP said Kejriwal will take oath as Delhi's
chief minister Saturday, exactly a year after he resigned. Delhi Police
said it will provide "Z" category security that would include at least
30 commandoes to Kejriwal.
Kejriwal later reached the AAP office
in central Delhi where he told boisterous supporters waving party flags
and brooms -- the AAP election symbol -- that the AAP sweep was "a
victory for truth and honesty".
He also urged his supporters not
to become arrogant, pointing out that it was arrogance which had first
decimated the Congress in Delhi and now the BJP.
"This is
incredible. We can't believe it," AAP leader and former Delhi minister
Manish Sisodia told IANS. Senior AAP leader Yogendra Yadav called it a
victory of proverbial David over Goliath.
In remarks directed at
Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had asked people
in Delhi to vote for the AAP, said it was a "big defeat for the arrogant
and those spreading hate".
"The election is a turning point... The country needed this change."
Gandhian
Anna Hazare added: "The result is a defeat for Narendra Modi. What did
the BJP do in the past nine months? The BJP made promises to tackle
corruption. Instead they took anti-people, anti-farmer decisions."
Former
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed said: "The Delhi
elections have asserted the diversity of our country and the need to
respect it which the BJP should learn not to ignore."
In Mumbai,
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray termed the AAP sweep a 'tsunami'.
"This is a great day for democracy. It was not just a wave. It was a
tsunami which swept Delhi. I agree with Anna Hazare that this is a
defeat for Modi, not (Kiran) Bedi."
The AAP was, however, more circumspect in its assessment.
"It
is a giant leap for a small party," AAP ideologue Yogendra Yadav told
the media. "We still have a long way to go (vis-a-vis national
politics). We have just got a toe-hold."
One after another, BJP
leaders accepted defeat and congratulated the AAP and Kejriwal. Said
Satish Upadhyay, the party's Delhi unit head: "Clearly, we made a
mistake in understanding the people's mood."
"We accept our massive defeat," added Communication Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Bedi,
whose induction as the BJP's chief ministerial candidate caused
fissures in the party, said: "I have not lost. Let the BJP assess why
they lost. I gave my very best."
The AAP is set to bag an
incredible 54 percent of all votes. It swept all parts of the capital,
including the middle class areas as well as the numerous low income
neighbourhoods. All social classes, including Muslims and Christians,
voted for it overwhelmingly.
Kejriwal himself won easily from New
Delhi constituency, where he created history in 2013 by defeating
three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit.
Most AAP leaders also
made it comfortably, including Somnath Bharti, Manish Sisodia and Rakhi
Birla, who were ministers in the earlier Kejriwal government.