Delhi has spoken its mind. It has firmly stood behind the mufflerman, Arvind Kejriwal. The BJP, which put in unprecedented effort to defeat Kejriwal over the national issues of new citizenship law, invoking threats from Pakistan, has been humbled.
The only saving grace for the saffron party was that it increased its vote share from 32.3 per cent in 2015 to 38 per cent, thus indicating that it managed to safeguard its votebank by raising the ideological issues. But the Delhiites voted on the issues of development, and work done by the AAP government in fields of health, education, and dolling out freebies like free power, water and bus travel for women.
Absence of a credible face to counter Kejriwal for the chief ministerial post also appears to have boosted voters' confidence in the AAP. The Congress' washout also helped the AAP emerge as a strong force in the opposition in Delhi, with a likely proactive role at the national level against the BJP.
BJP chief J.P. Nadda was gracious to accept the mandate and said the BJP will continue to raise the issues relevant to the common man in the assembly. He also thanked the party cadre who worked hard for party's campaign.
The counting of votes started on an ambitious note for the saffron party as the initial trends showed that it could win over 20 seats. But as the day advanced, the tally fell below double digit mark. By 4 pm, the BJP was leading on seven seats, three more than last time. The party retained the two seats it won in 2015—Rohini and Vishwas Nagar—but was trailing on Mustafabad.
The Delhi's campaign was important as it was fought by the BJP on emotive and ideological issues. Former BJP chief and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had taken command of the campaign which had two distinct elements—in narrative it focussed on Shaheen Bagh, and citizenship law, and in campaign style, Shah went for carpet bombing the national capital with street meets. Party chief ministers and even those from allies campaigned, along with their cabinet colleagues, which poured energy. In the final assault, over 200 BJP MPs also went to slums to campaign.
This high intensity campaign, which raised tempers ahead of elections, failed to get the BJP enough to win the elections. This is the second time in a row that BJP has lost the Delhi elections after Narendra Modi took over as the prime minister. The saffron party has been out of power in the national capital for 22 years.
The Delhi loss may force the party to rework its strategy as it did in 2015 when it shifted gears to organisation building and door-to-door campaign. At national level, this was party's fifth defeat in the assembly elections.
BJP's Kapil Mishra, who tasted defeat in Model Town constituency, said, “BJP has lost the fifth state election in a row. It means we have somewhere failed to connect with the people of Delhi.”
The bigger worry for the party may now be in Bihar where elections take place in a few months.