Arvind Kejrival’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has scored big win in Delhi assembly election, scoring over 63 seats in the 7-member house and return to power for the third time in so many elections. The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to secure seven seats while the Congress party failed to secure even a single seat so far as counting neared completion.
While Kejriwal comfortably sailed through in his New Delhi seat, party's number two leader, Manish Sisodia, had been trailing for much of the vote counting. "Happy that people voted to make Arvind Kejriwal the chief minister for the third time with a massive victory," said Sisodia who fanally got through.
The Congress failed miserably despite fielding some heavyweights, including Alka Lamba and Arvinder Singh Lovely.
Exit polls had predicted another term for Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party. The BJP, discounted the effect on mostly Muslim settlers of its -Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the threat posed by the so-called `Shaheen Bagh’.
Besides a highly polarized electorate, the AAP gained from the freebees of water and electricity besides the work done in the field of education and health.
The campaign for the Delhi Election 2020 has been bitter and polarised, the political discourse bogged down by threatening slogans and foul language.
BJP conducted a massive campaign, roping in most of its 70 union ministers, 270 MPs and leaders and chief ministers from various states with its campaign based on anti-CAA and nationalism.
The turnout for the Delhi election 2020, however, was only 62.59 per cent, which also meant loss of vote for BJP and Congress.
The BJP and not the Congress was defeated in Delhi as the Congress tally remained at zero like in 2015, Congress leader and Punjab cabinet minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
"We were zero earlier, and this time too we are zero. So it's not our defeat. It's a defeat for the BJP," he said, referring to the election trends which gave the Congress no seat in the Delhi assembly election.
The Congress had not won even a single seat in the 2015 Assembly polls too.
In the end, AAP proved to be smarter. Kejriwal did not engage with Modi, attack him or get dented by the BJP's attempt to claim sole rights on nationalism.
Arvind Kejriwal said it is a new kind of politics that is taking shape in Delhi. He thanked people of Delhi for placing faith in his party for the third time. “This win belongs to all people of Delhi, everyone who have considered me a son and gave us this massive win.”