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Delhi rejects politics of hatred and communalism

By Kushal Jeena. Dated: 2/14/2020 1:30:01 AM

The resounding victory of chief minister Arvind Kejriwl led Aam Adami Party in the assembly elections in Delhi is indicative of the fact that the people of national capital the politics of hatred and communalism that BJP played hard during the campaign was not acceptable by Delhi Voters.
AAPs emphatic win in Delhi underlines the fact that Brand Kejriwal in Delhi is strong given its development record and BJPs strategy to call him names and calling him a terrorist did not go down well with the voters. Brand Modi did push up BJP's tally though the Prime Minister did just held two rallies but the lack of a local face hurt the BJP chance most. The BJP''s campaign which centered around Shaheen Bagh did not make much dent in Kejriwal's strong development pitch and his campaign focussed on the need for continuity for his government for another five years.
The election become a direct contest between BJP and AAP.
Riding on its development agenda, the Aam Aadmi Party has retained power for a third term in Delhi. The elections in the national capital took place in the midst of massive protests in the city and elsewhere over the new citizenship law, the National Register of Citizens.
In a much tighter contest than what pollsters predicted, BJP has improved both its vote share and seat tally. So far, the AAP vote share stands at 53.5%, with 38.7% for BJP & 4% for Congress. In one-third of the seats, the margin is less over a 1000.
The Delhi Assembly elections held on February 8, saw a high-voltage campaign between the ruling AAP and the BJP, while the Congress ended up as inconsequential participant.
With the Congress decimated in the Delhi Assembly elections, the grand old party sought consolation in the march of Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party to retain power. The AAP's ability to stop the BJP was significant. Everyone knew that Aam Aadmi Party will return to power for the third time. Congress's defeat will not send a good message. The victory of AAP against the Bharatiya Janata Party and its communal agenda is significant.
Five exit polls had predicted that the AAP will retain power with a comfortable majority while the BJP will make large gains. The exit polls also predicted a distant third position for the Congress with the party either failing to secure any seat. The Congress ran a low-profile, lacklustre campaign for the elections. Its big guns - Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi - joined the campaign only towards the fag end of it.
In contrast the AAP, ran a focused campaign to turn the narrative towards issues like infrastructure, education, women safety, electricity, water during the campaign for the elections.
The BJP's campaign was hyper-nationalistic where many of its leaders were accused of inciting passions with incendiary speeches. The saffron party ran a high-voltage campaign and deployed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address two rallies while Union home minister and former BJP chief Amit Shah micro-managed the campaign.
—[IFS]