LUCKNOW: Congratulating Aam Admi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on the thumping majority his party registered to form government in Delhi again, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav dubbed the results as a good sign for "politics of peace and development" in the country.
The Samajwadi Party chief tweeted on Tuesday saying that the results of Delhi had left a clear and ample indication that majority of Indians were socially kind and politically wise even today.
“The Delhi election results are a reflection of the fact that people of India are socially kind and politically wise even today and they are against those who drag personal beliefs like religion into political arena to make their political flowers bloom,” wrote the SP chief. “These results are good indications for country’s peace and development,” he added.
Earlier, while interacting with media persons in New Delhi, Akhilesh said that the Delhi results would send a strong message across the country. People of India would now choose those who would work for farmers, poor, youth, development and well being of all. He said the politics of hatred, in which the BJP had been indulging for a long time, would be rejected by the people.
The SP chief had launched a broadside on the saffron party after Delhi exit polls on Saturday. He had claimed that people of Delhi had rejected the BJP completely. On Saturday, Akhilesh had tweeted that the exit poll figures showed that BJP’s politics of hatred was rejected by the people of Delhi and tomorrow the whole nation would follow the suit.
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However, BSP chief Mayawati remained incommunicado on Delhi poll result day. At the same time, the party witnessed its worst show in the 2020 Delhi elections as it failed to open the account in the national capital where it had contested on all 70 seats. With over 20 lakh Dalits and 12 reserved seats, Delhi BSP was banking heavily on the Dalit votes.
The BSP had contested its first assembly polls of Delhi in 1993, with candidates on 55 seats and bagged 1.88% votes. In 1998, it fielded 40 candidates and garnered 5.76% votes. This increased in 2003 when the party won 8.96% votes. After the BSP won 206 seats in the 2007 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, it won two seats in the 2008 assembly polls, bagging 14.05% of votes. In 2013, the Mayawati-led party got 5.35% with 69 candidates in the fray. This fell further to 1.30% in 2015.