New Delhi: A confused and divided
Bharatiya Janata Party, which was riding high following the landslide victory in
the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and consecutive wins in the Assembly elections in
four states, has been steamrolled by the two-year-old Aam Aadmi Party in the
Delhi Assembly elections.
The failure to counter the charismatic
and street smart IIT Kharagpur graduate Arvind Kejriwal, who rebuilt the AAP
after the party's mauling in the Lok Sabha elections, saw the BJP resorting to
negative campaign which failed to sway the voters leading to its decimation and
reducing the party to single digits in the 70-member Assembly.
Flush with funds, an array of stars, an
election machinery on a roll, a leadership adept at reading the pulse of the
electorate made the BJP confident of winning Delhi until they came face to face
with Kejriwal and his loyalists.
Here are 10 reasons behind the loss
1) BJP's negative campaign
The BJP roped in 120 MPs, including
several Central Ministers and chief ministers to target AAP and Kejriwal but the
plan failed and instead back-fired on the party. Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
who addressed five rallies in the national capital, kept on accusing Kejriwal of
not doing enough without coming up with his party's blueprint for the national
capital.
Modi and BJP leaders called Kejriwal
anarchist, Naxals, bhagoda (runaway) and dharna expert which sent out the
message that the party was only interested in name calling. BJP published
cartoons in newspapers on the U-turns by Kejriwal and it hit the lowest point
when the party called him belonging to the 'updravi gothra'. Another
advertisement used caricatures of Kejriwal's children and even had Anna Hazare
in a photo frame with a garland on it which signaled that he was dead. Such
advertisement were turned around by the AAP and used to counter BJP.
The BJP also asked 35 questions to
Kejriwal on U-turns made by him on his poll promises and targeting him for
leaving the government in 49 days. When Kejriwal called the party for a debate,
BJP chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi said that they would debate in the
Delhi Assembly.
2) Kejriwal seen as the tallest
leader
BJP's plan to target Kejriwal on every
issue and from all angles made him the tallest leader and was seen as martyr by
some. A brigade of BJP leaders slammed him from morning to evening and it
actually benefited him. The result was similar to that of Lok Sabha elections
wherein Modi was targeted by all the parties and he single-handedly took them
on.
In Delhi polls, Kejriwal took on both
the national parties reducing the BJP to 3 seats and Congress failing to open
its account. He did not indulge in any negative campaigning and said what people
wanted to hear.
3) BJP inducts Kiran Bedi, fails to
change party's fortune
Seeing the mood of the people who were
moving towards the AAP, BJP President Amit Shah inducted former IPS officer
Kiran Bedi to take on Kejriwal but the plan failed and she lost from the party's
stronghold constituency Krishna Nagar which was represented by Union Minister Dr
Harsh Vardhan from 1993 to 2013.
Even though Bedi contested from a safe
seat, she failed to garner support for the party and win over their trust.
Having the responsibility to campaign on all the 70 seats, she could not devote
much time to her seat. And even her roadshow on the last day of campaign started
without her.
4) Infighting within the BJP
The coming in of new faces, sidelining
of old-timers and declining them ticket resulted in fierce infighting within the
party which was already badly divided. The situation turned worse as party
workers carried out protest outside Delhi unit office and some of them contested
as Independents leading to division of votes.
Party workers and senior leaders were
not actively participating in the campaign and it left a wrong impression on the
voters' mind. Instead of going as a united body, the BJP looked like a divided
front in Delhi polls.
BJP parachuted candidates like Krishna
Tirath (Patel Nagar), Vinod Kumar Binny (Pataparganj) ignoring its own cadre and
paid the price for it as all of them lost.
5) No vision for Delhi
BJP dethered on an election manifesto
for Delhi signalling that party leaders were not sure of the agenda. Making it
worse, an over enthusiastic Bedi tweeted her own 25-point project for Delhi
without consulting her party and it resulted in her party belatedly coming out
with a vision document for the national capital.
In a huge blunder, the party in its
vision document called people from North East as 'immigrants'.
6) BJP failed to address local issue
From top to bottom, all BJP leaders only
targeted the AAP and Kejriwal, and did not focus on any local issue which
concerned the common Delhiite. Even the four rallies addressed by Modi a week
before elections saw meagre crowd wherein he did not address any local issue or
lay down the development plan for the national capital. On the other hand, the
AAP's campaign was more mature focusing of local issues like water, electricity,
corruption, price rise and women security.
The BJP, however, failed to read the
mood of the people for whom not the allegations but the basic necessities matter
the most. The party's inability to fulfil its tall promises made during the Lok
Sabha elections campaign on black money, 'ache din aaenge' (good days ahead),
price rise cost the party dearly.
Not witnessing much work done by the
Narendra Modi government on development front and the growing corruption in the
BJP-ruled Municipal Corporation of Delhi, inflated water and electricity bills,
people showed their anger by voting against the BJP in Delhi polls.
7) BJP decision not to hold Delhi polls
after Lok Sabha elections
BJP swept all the seven Lok Sabha seats
in Delhi and led in 60 Assembly segments but surprisingly failed to hold
elections in the national capital after it. A divided BJP was still wary of
winning Delhi which gave time to AAP to consilodate. Even though Kejriwal fared
badly when he made his political debut on the national platform in the 2014 Lok
Sabha elections, he realized his blunder and devoted all his energy and
resources to lay the road map for success in Delhi by working on the ground for
over six months.
8) Modi's MPs 'ghar wapsi' campaign
Modi's failure to control his own MPs
who were allegedly forcing people to convert into Hinduism across the country
and calling it 'Ghar Wapsi' created a lot of anger amongst the people. He also
failed to curb attacks on Church hurting the sentiment of Christians which
resulted in the alienation of voters.
His MPs also went on to the extent of
asking Hindu women to produce four children, 10 children in order to protect the
religion.
9) AAP won perception battle
The AAP managed to win the perception
battle by being on ground and striking a chord with 'aam aadmi' as against BJP.
The Rs 10 lakh suit wore by the Prime Minister during US President Barack
Obama's visit raised many fingers as people are demanding answers on black
money. Kejriwal's 'aam aadmi' image wearing a muffler gave more assurance to
people that he will work for them.
10) Congress wipeout
Not finding much hope from Congress, the
party's votebank shifted to AAP leading to a massive mandate. The scam tainted
tag still remains with the party and with no major overhaul seen in the party,
it is losing one poll after another.
via:
http://www.msn.com
Delhi Assembly Election 2015 Results:
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Constituency
Candidate Party Status
--------------------- ----------------- --------
----------
01.Adarsh Nagar Pawan Kumar Sharma AAP WON
02.Ambedkar Nagar
Ajay Dutt AAP WON
03.Babarpur Gopal Rai AAP WON
04.Badarpur Narayan Dutt
Sharma AAP WON
05.Badli Ajesh Yadav AAP WON
06.Ballimaran Imran Hussain
AAP WON
07.Bawana Ved Parkash AAP WON
08.Bijwasan Col Devinder Sehrawat
AAP WON
09.Burari Sanjeev Jha AAP WON
10Chandni Chowk Alka Lamba AAP
WON
11.Chhatarpur Kartar Singh Tanwar AAP WON
12.Delhi Cantt Surender
Singh AAP WON
13.Deoli Prakash AAP WON
14.Dwarka Adarsh Shastri AAP
WON
15.Gandhi Nagar Anil Kumar Bajpai AAP WON
16.Ghonda Shri Dutt Sharma
AAP WON
17.Gokalpur Fateh Singh AAP WON
18.Greater Kailash Saurabh
Bharadwaj AAP WON
19.Hari Nagar Jagdeep Singh AAP WON
20.Janakpuri Rajesh
Rishi AAP WON
21.Jangpura Praveen Kumar AAP WON
22.Kalkaji Avtar Singh
Kalkaji AAP WON
23.Wazirpur Rajesh Gupta AAP WON
24.Karawal Nagar Kapil
Mishra AAP WON
25.Karol Bagh Vishesh Ravi AAP WON
26.Kasturba Nagar Madan
Lal AAP WON
27.Kirari Rituraj Govind AAP WON
28.Kondli Manoj Kumar AAP
WON
29.Krishna Nagar S K Bagga, Advocate AAP WON
30.Laxmi Nagar Nitin
Tyagi AAP WON
31.Madipur Girish Soni AAP WON
32.Malviya Nagar Somnath
Bharti AAP WON
33.Mangolpuri Rakhi Birla AAP WON
34.Matia Mahal Asim Ahmed
Khan AAP WON
35.Matiala Gulab Singh AAP WON
36.Mehrauli Naresh Yadav AAP
WON
37.Model Town Akhilesh Pati Tripathi AAP WON
38.Moti Nagar Shiv Charan
Goel AAP WON
39.Mundka Sukhvir Singh AAP WON
40.Najafgarh Kailash Gahlot
AAP WON
41.Nangloi Jat Raghuvinder Shokeen AAP WON
42.Narela Sharad Kumar
AAP WON
43.New Delhi Arvind Kejriwal AAP WON
44.Okhla Amanatullah Khan AAP
WON
45.Palam Bhavna Gaur AAP WON
46.Patel Nagar Hazari Lal Chauhan AAP
WON
47.Patparganj Manish Sisodia AAP WON
48.R K Puram Parmila Tokas AAP
WON
49.Rajinder Nagar Vijender Garg Vijay AAP WON
50.Rajouri Garden
Jarnail Singh AAP WON
51.Rithala Mohinder Goyal AAP WON
52.Rohtas Nagar
Sarita Singh AAP WON
53.Sadar Bazar Som Dutt AAP WON
54.Sangam Vihar
Dinesh Mohaniya AAP WON
55.Seelampur Mohd. Ishraque AAP WON
56.Seema Puri
Rajendra Pal Gautam AAP WON
57.Shahadara Ram Niwas Goel AAP WON
58.Shakur
Basti Satyendar Jain AAP WON
59.Shalimar Bagh Bandana Kumari AAP
WON
60.Sultanpur Majra Sandeep Kumar AAP WON
61.Tilak Nagar Jarnail Singh
AAP WON
62.Timarpur ankaj Pushkar AAP WON
63.Tri Nagar Jitender Singh
Tomar AAP WON
64.Trilokpuri Raju Dhingan AAP WON
65.Tughlakabad Sahi Ram
AAP WON
66.Uttam Nagar Naresh Balyan AAP WON
67.Vikaspuri Mahinder Yadav
AAP WON
68.Rohini Vijender Kumar BJP WON
69.Mustafabad Jagdish Pradhan BJP
WON
70.Vishwas Nagar Om Prakash Sharma BJP WON