New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has staged a comeback in Delhi after being out of power for 27 years by routing the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) decade-long government in the national capital. In his victory speech on Saturday (February 8), after election results were declared, Prime Minister Narendra Modi who led his party’s campaign centred around corruption allegations against the AAP, capped its efforts and said that a party that was “born out of a corruption movement, became mired in corruption itself”.
“The party born out of the movement against corruption got involved in corruption. It became such a party of the country whose chief minister and ministers went to jail on corruption charges. Those who used to give themselves certificates of honesty, turned out to be corrupt. This was a big betrayal with Delhi,” said Modi.
While the AAP rose to prominence in the national capital on the back of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, with former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal fashioning himself as a direct challenger to Prime Minister Modi when he contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections against him from Varanasi, the party and its top leadership faced corruption allegations in recent years in connection with the Delhi liquor excise policy case.
Top ministers such as former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, former health minister Satyendar Jain, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Kejriwal himself were jailed in connection with the case. The BJP centred its campaign around the AAP’s corruption allegations, including accusing Kejriwal of building a “Sheesh Mahal” (crystal palace) at his official residence after promising to live humbly.
Also read: AAP’s Unwillingness to Go with Congress Cost them Delhi
“The liquor scam defamed Delhi. The scams in schools and hospitals troubled the poorest of the poor and on top of that, their arrogance was such that when the world was dealing with Corona, these AAPda people were building ‘Sheesh Mahal’,” said Modi.
“Delhi’s verdict has come. I can guarantee that in the first Delhi assembly session the CAG report will be presented and all corruption allegations will be probed. Anyone who has looted will have to give it back. This is also Modi’s guarantee,” he added.
Ahead of the elections, the BJP had cited findings from a CAG report that stated that the Delhi liquor policy scam had resulted in a loss of Rs 2,026 crore to the Delhi exchequer. The BJP had alleged that the AAP had not tabled the report in the Assembly to hide its corruption.
“People of Delhi are filled with enthusiasm today. They are also relieved because Delhi is now free of ‘AAP-da’,” said Modi.
The AAP which had won 62 seats in 2020 was reduced to only 22 seats. The vote share between the two parties, however, remained close with the BJP getting 45.56%, and the AAP 43.57% votes. The Congress failed to open its account for a third consecutive election in the national capital.
While the BJP bested the AAP – by winning 48 out of 70 seats – stark class divisions came to the fore, showing a strong preference of the prosperous sections for the BJP and of the poor for the AAP. The Wire has reported that the BJP scored its biggest wins in outer Delhi’s semi-urban constituencies and relatively prosperous seats of central Delhi, reflecting a success for the BJP’s systematic outreach among the formerly agrarian Jat and Gujjar demographics, middle class voters, and government servants, while the AAP’s victories mostly came from reserved seats and those with a huge population of the poorest of the poor, referred to derisively as Jhuggi-Jhopri seats.
Also read: BJP Trounces AAP in Delhi As Sharp Class Divisions Come to The Fore
With only days to go for the election in Delhi, the Centre’s big tax exemptions for the middle class in the Union budget also provided a boost to its efforts to woo the middle class that in the past decade had voted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections and the AAP in the assembly elections.
The BJP also effectively gained from its systematic attempts to choke the AAP politically and administratively with the constant tussle between the Delhi government and the Centre’s representative, the lieutenant governor (LG), where the AAP-led government founds its hands tied administratively even as its top leaders were in jail.
In the final leg of the campaign, the BJP also highlighted the urban issues like air pollution, contaminated Yamuna water as failures of the AAP government.
In a nod to the successful campaign, Modi who began his victory speech by saying “Yamuna maiyya ki jay” also promised to clean its contaminated water.
“We thank Yamuna Devi. This very Yamuna was spoilt by these people. The people of Delhi were hurt by the condition of the Yamuna. But AAP-da insulted this faith, and trampled their faith. They blamed Haryana for poisoning Yamuna water. I promised to make Yamuna the identity of Delhi. This is a difficult task and will take time, like the Ganga, which is being cleaned since the time of Rajiv Gandhi. No matter how much time it takes, Yamuna’s Ashirwad is there for our resolve,” Modi added.
