Steering clear of the traps that the BJP had set for him -- such as Shaheen Bagh -- and tip toeing through a political minefield, Arvind Kejriwal has been able to re-invent himself as a harbinger of development and record his second consecutive win as a chief minister.
For the BJP, it is a wake-up call of sorts which it has studiously ignored in MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Punjab, not to forget Maharashtra which it allowed unwittingly to slip out of its clasp.
For the Congress, it’s a story of steady decline, almost bordering on ruin, though it may like to describe the decadence as a tactical retreat to keep the BJP at bay.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram tweeted: "AAP won, bluff and bluster lost.
The people of Delhi, who are from all parts of India, have defeated the polarising, divisive and dangerous agenda of the BJP."The percentage of total votes polled had slipped from 67.5% in 2015 to 62.59%; or else, the AAP would have repeated the 2015 clean sweep of 67 seats, its deputy CM Sisodia said.
The Congress candidates, it is believed, decided at the last moment to tactically retreat and transfer their own votes to the AAP to ensure the defeat of the BJP, though the party denied any such concerted move.
Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari, MP, who exuded confidence till noon of winning 45 seats, said the party will review why it could not meet its expectations in Delhi, which had given all the seven Lok Sabha seats to the BJP only eight months ago.
Even while conceding defeat and congratulating Kejriwal for securing people's verdict, Tiwari said it was not a complete rejection of his party. He noted that the party had increased its vote share from 32 to 38 per cent. His valuable advice to party men was: Don’t get disheartened.
