New Delhi: Nine months back, one could barely find a foothold in the BJP headquarters during the victory speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the general elections.
On Tuesday, the BJP headquarters wore a deserted look. There were no party cheerleaders in sight, no mindless chants of ‘Modi-Modi’, no TV crews jostling for space, no beating of drums, no showering of rose petals, no gates bedecked with marigolds and no larger than life cut outs of the PM and his trusted lieutenant, Amit Shah.
Only the BJP office staffers and security guards were seen hanging around the reception area and the canteen. Some were trying to catch up on poll results on the television. Not more than 12 persons could be sighted in the ground floor of the BJP headquarters.
Barely half a km away, the Aam Aadmi Party was celebrating in its main office the return of its hero Arvind Kejriwal. The AAP office wore a festive look and was incessantly mobbed by supporters.
Unable to digest its humiliating defeat, the otherwise media savvy BJP leaders chose to avoid journalists. Only BJP National Spokerson Shahnawaz Hussain was available.
A visibly fatigued Hussain said that the BJP had fought the election on the plank of development but freebies offered by the AAP swayed the voters.
He said that it was not as if the national capital had become a heaven, or that it had started looking like Lutyen’s Delhi. On what lies ahead in other states, notably Bihar, he said that the BJP is confident of forming the government with the JD-U.
Hussain was quick to denounce the Congress party’s inability to secure even one seat in Delhi, where its leader Sonia Gandhi resides; it showed that the party has ceased to matter.
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