Mumbai: Stating that the victory of Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi Assembly election was not surprising, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday termed it as a personal defeat for BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Sena said that despite deploying almost the entire Union Cabinet, over 150 MPs, state Chief Ministers and ministers, more than 200 MLAs from across India, the BJP suffered a “clean sweep” by AAP’s ‘jhadu’ (broom).
“This is a rare instance when a Chief Minister (Arvind Kejriwal) went to the people with his performance record and sought votes against this, the BJP’s ‘in-the-air’ policies failed,” said the Sena, in strong edits in the party-run newspapers, ‘Saamana’ and ‘Dopahar Ka Saamana’.
The anti-BJP diatribe came a day after Sena President and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray without naming the BJP – said that the people of Delhi have listened to ‘Jan ki baat’ and ‘Mann ki Baat’ will have no relevance in the country now.
It added that with AAP victory in Delhi, and the recent Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress coalition taking power in Maharashtra, the BJP has lost out on the country’s political capital and the commercial capital due to its “selfishness and arrogance”.
“In Delhi, the BJP was always confused on what issues to confront AAP with, so as usual it raked up emotional and communal issues like Hindu-Muslim, patriotism and anti-nationalism. However, the voters kicked aside these and overwhelmingly voted for Kejriwal’s performance in the past five years, giving AAP 62 out of 70 seats,” the Sena said.
Referring to the BJP’s victory on all seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats barely eight months ago, the Sena said it was “a one-sided win” since there was nobody strong enough to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“In February 2020, the BJP heated up the political atmosphere with issues like CAA-NRC, there were sit-in protests in Shaheen Bagh to which the BJP gave a ‘Muslim only’ tag to grab votes, but failed in all its tactics as the Delhiites remained solidly behind AAP,” the Sena pointed out.
Thumping Kejriwal’s back, it lauded him for the unprecedented strides in education and health which have grabbed global attention, and the relief like free water and power but “without misleading the people” that helped him notch such an impressive hat-trick win.
“The police administration does not come under Kejriwal’s purview. When the law and order deteriorated in Delhi, he effectively blamed Modi-Shah, who retaliated by calling him a ‘terrorist’. Ultimately, Kejriwal’s broom swept aside all and he rode back to power,” the Sena said.
In conclusion, the Sena said though BJP may be ‘satisfied’ it got more seats (eight of 70) and even notched a slight increase in the vote share, but finally it was Kejriwal’s superior performance which won the day for him.