The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday witnessed one of its biggest electoral routs at the hands of the still relatively rookie Aam Aadmi Party, forcing it to continue its dry spell in the Capital.
The saffron party, which was hoping to form government in Delhi after 16 years, was reduced to three seats with senior party leaders stunned with the performance of the Arvind Kejriwal-outfit.
Despite five rallies addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, emphasis on booth-management by party chief Amit Shah, corner meetings by MPs, a boisterous membership drive and a dozen other initiatives aimed at gaining full majority in the polls, the BJP suffered a drubbing worse than the Congress in the 2013 Assembly polls.
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A former BJP legislator who looked visibly shaken referred to the AAP’s landslide victory as “tsunami”. Even party stalwarts like Jagdish Mukhi who fought elections from Janakpuri and high-profile import Krishna Tirath, the former Congress Minister, could not win seats. BJP chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi lost by over 2,200 votes in Krishna Nagar, from where Union Minister Harsh Vardhan has won five times previously.
Interestingly, the BJP’s vote share compared to the 2013 Delhi Assembly polls was more or less intact. The party on Tuesday saw a slight drop in vote share — from 33.07 per cent to 32.2 per cent. In fact, the BJP polled 2.87 lakh more votes this year compared to the previous Assembly polls. Yet, with its opponent gaining from the shift in Congress voters, the BJP’s vote share did not translate into more seats for the party.
The BJP managed to hold on to Vishwas Nagar, where sitting MLA O.P. Sharma won by a margin of 10,158 votes over the AAP candidate. The BJP took Rohini back from AAP with Vijender Gupta winning by 5,367 votes. It also benefited from the splitting of votes between the AAP and Congress candidate in Mustafabad and won with a margin of 6,031 votes here.
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Of the 31 seats in which the BJP was victorious last time, the party’s candidate in the reserved constituency of Bawana lost with a margin of more than 50,000 votes. In five seats, the candidates lost with a margin over 40,000 votes; in seven over 30,000 votes; and loss in a margin of over 20,000 votes in seven other Assembly seats. In six Assembly seats, the loss was over a margin of 10,000. It was only in Krishna Nagar, Rohtas Nagar, Ghonda and Najafgarh that the margin of defeat was relatively low.