ARVIND Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party, the governing party of Delhi, was leading in more than 60 seats in Delhi’s 70-member assembly on Tuesday evening. It is almost certain that AAP is going to retain power in Delhi frustrating the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Mr Kejriwal has termed the people’s verdict a win for Bharat Mata (Mother India). One thing is clear from the election results that voters of Delhi didn’t pay heed to the BJP’s divisive campaign. Rather, they opted for incumbent Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s pro-poor policies. BJP has no other way but to taste the defeat getting only 7 seats. On the other hand, like 2015, the Congress this time also was unable to be part of the assembly without any seat. Nearly 61 percent of Delhi’s 14.7 million voters cast their ballots on Saturday.
Perhaps Delhi’s election is the most hate-filled election in India’s electoral history. And at the same time, the voters have given a very good message that hate politics won’t work anymore. We believe, it’s not just an election result, but one result which carries high significance. The voters have given signals against the politics of polarisation and division that BJP unleashed across the Indian states. Particularly, the ruling BJP’s latest efforts to implement the two most oppressive laws –CAA and NRC – was a clear enough sign before the Indians that the ruling party was trying to create divisions among the citizens through practicing hate politics. Now being rejected by Delhi’s voters, BJP should take a lesson not to repeat this kind of blatant hate politics anymore in other states.
There is another important thing – that is non-stop anti-CAA protests by youths at Shaheenbagh, now captured by international media headlines, also helped voters to take a tough stance against the BJP. The protesters accused BJP of running a campaign based on religious polarization, targeting the Muslim community. Fact is that — Muslims are only 10% of Delhi’s population. That means, not Muslims – the Hindus and other religious groups have also voted for AAP. Though BJP managed a big win in the general election of May it is now losing state elections one after another.
