WEB DESK
As Delhi Assembly poll trends showed that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is winning with a clear majority, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to have accepted defeat.
The party has put up posters at its Delhi party office saying that it is not discouraged by defeat. A poster in the Delhi BJP office has a photo of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and reads ‘Victory doesn’t makes us arrogant, defeat doesn’t demoralise us’.
The BJP’s posters across Delhi with the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, abrogation of Article 370 provisions for Jammu and Kashmir, criminalisation of triple talaq, and the Balakot air strikes. Home minister Amit Shah led from the front in a no-holds-barred campaign where the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh figured on top of the agenda.
In the BJP’s Jeet ki Goonj programme on January 25, Shah said, “Kamal ke button ko itni zor se dabana ki us button ke current se hi February 8 ki sham ko hi Shaheen Bagh waale uth kar chale jayein (Press the Lotus button on the EVM with such force that the current it generates makes the Shaheen Bagh protesters go back to their homes on the evening of February 8).” The not-so-subtle strategy was to polarise voters. According to the 2011 census, 81.86% of Delhi’s population comprised Hindus and 12.86% were Muslims. And, unlike last year’s elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, the anti-CAA protests sprung up the capital just weeks before the February 8 polls, kicking off on December 15.
For the BJP, a loss in Delhi, with 81.86% Hindus, would be seen by critics as a referendum against the CAA as well as a rejection of its high-pitched and polarising campaign. With no state elections round the corner – the next big ones are in Bihar towards the end of the year and West Bengal in mid-2021 – this could send out a message across the country. The AAP chief’s response to the strong challenge by the BJP captures the essence of the reimagined Arvind Kejriwal.
The Delhi election trends showed a drastic fall in the vote share of the Congress where the party has gone down from the 2015 polls.
The party insider admitted that if the Congress had put in tough fight, the BJP would have got more seats than they are getting now.
The Congress has led a lacklustre campaign in comparison with the BJP and the AAP. The vote difference between them is just about 10 per cent.