Delhi election results: AAP heads for historic hat-trick win

Mangalore Today News Network

Delhi, Feb 11, 2020: If you watched the Delhi exit poll proadcasts and expected Tuesday to throw a surprise, well, it isn’t looking likely. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has pulled into a commanding lead in counting trends. The BJP is left with around 13-14 seats in a 70-member assembly. The Congress may draw a blank, and its leaders are speaking out, India Today reported.

 

Though Delhi elections are normally three-way contests, the one held on February 8 was largely seen as a face-off between the AAP and the BJP. Arvind Kejriwal -- who will be chief minister for a third time if he wins -- touted himself as a good governance man, promised doorstep delivery of rations and offered spoken English classes and a patriotism curriculum to school students. His campaign slogan told voters, "Acche beete paanch saal" -- five years have gone by "well".

The BJP, on the other hand, didn’t declare a prospective chief minister (a detail the AAP tried repeatedly to drum into voters’ minds, in an appearent attempt to make the contest ’presidential’) and its pledges included a subsidy on wheat flour and increased spending on health and education. The party was last in power in Delhi in the 1990s.

Campaigning for the Delhi election began in early January and was a conveyor belt of controversy. BJP officials were ordered off the campaign trail for targeting anti-government demonstrators in controversial public remarks. Protesters blocking a key highway at Shaheen Bagh, in particular, found themselves all too often in the BJP’s crosshairs, an effort Kejriwal described as an effort to change the narrative of the election (He himself was reprimanded by the Election Commission and accused of trying to win votes by creating tension between religious communities). Kejriwal’s knowledge of Hindu prayer and temple visits were subjects of discussion even as late as polling day.

As well, a series of shootings, none of them fatal, took place near the Shaheen Bagh protest site. Two of the gunmen shouted or wrote pro-Hindu slogans on Facebook. One of them was accused of links with the AAP, but his father denied that.

The AAP sweep indicated by counting trends mirrors exit poll predictions, though the BJP said these would fall flat. The lotus may well ending winning more seats than it did in 2015 -- a paltry three -- but losing will still sting. Since winning re-election to national government in 2019, the BJP has suffered two major reverses: a coalition win in Maharashtra that did not translate into power (the Shiv Sena broke away to team up with former rivals) and a straight loss in Jharkhand.