A substantial 10 percent vote swing against the AAP knocked it out of power in Delhi as the party shed 40 seats from its 2020 tally of 62 in the 70-member assembly. Arrogance was writ large as AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal refused to forge an alliance with the Congress due to overconfidence on getting a third consecutive mandate by going solo. That fractured opposition unity, though others in the INDIA bloc with negligible presence in Delhi supported the AAP. The ruling party lost at least 14 seats because of a split in the opposition vote share. Another metric makes the comparison even more interesting. While the BJP got 2 percent more votes than the AAP, an equal percentage of votes got added to the Congress kitty than it had in 2020. That the game could have been different had the opposition stayed united is a no-brainer. When the outcome appeared clear, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah exclaimed: “Aur lado aapas mein!!! (Go on fighting against each other!!!)”
As for the Congress, it does not seem to have any sense of guilt in gift-wrapping Delhi to the BJP. It feels a powerless AAP would open the space for the grand old party to regain the turf it ceded to Kejriwal when he rode the 2011 anti-corruption campaign wave. A decade later, Kejriwal lost his teflon image and became the face of ill-gotten wealth because of the excise policy scam, which was first reported by this newspaper.
If AAP’s goodies fetched it two consecutive terms, the BJP more than matched them with Modi’s guarantees this time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured that none of the AAP’s welfare schemes would be axed if the BJP were to rule Delhi, adding there were more in store. In the process, the party weaned Dalit votes away from the AAP. The BJP’s hyper-local campaign that focused on the declining quality of living, bad governance, toxic Yamuna, air pollution, and crumbling infrastructure struck a chord among the poor and the middle class. Income tax cuts in the Union budget were timed just right for the polls. Hindutva did not figure much in the campaign but the Sangam dips by the party brass at the Kumbh sent their own silent message. Modi has now taken the onerous responsibility of cleaning up the Yamuna. Here’s wishing him godspeed.