AAP decimates BJP in Delhi polls
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Agencies
New Delhi, February 10 2015:
Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) registered a landslide victory in Delhi Assembly Polls effectively halting the Narendra Modi wave that had swept the BJP to power at the Centre and three states.
In a stunning election result, Kejriwal's AAP won 67 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly and trounced its arch-rival BJP with the party winning only three seats.
The BJP, which was hoping to sail through on the Modi charisma, could not even ensure a win for its chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi.
She lost to AAP's SK Bagga from the Krishna Nagar constituency, considered a safe seat which had sent BJP's Dr Harsh Vardhan five times to the Delhi Assembly.
"I couldn't live up to their expectations," Bedi said.
All AAP top leaders, including Kejriwal's second in command Manish Sisodia, registered wins in the polls.
Amid chanting of '5 saal Kejriwal' by a jubilant gathering of his supporters outside the office, Kejriwal thanked his voters.
The party was seen to be in the wilderness after it quit power in February.
With no clear majority to any party in 2013, AAP had taken outside support from the Congress.
But it was a marriage destined to fail.
Kejriwal left mid-way and the party was losing its support base and invited public anger.
But, in a remarkable recovery, APP reconnected with the middle and working class voters and a solid base for this resounding victory was laid.