‘Capital has rejected BJP’s divisive campaign’
MUMBAI
As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced another humiliating defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections, its former ally, Shiv Sena, said that the people of national capital have rejected the “BJP’s divisive and hate-filled campaign”.
Shiv Sena chief and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said the “so-called national party could not stand against Kejriwal’s broom”. Thackeray, in a jibe at the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said people are now opting for ‘Jan Ki Baat’ and not ‘Mann ki Baat’.
The Shiv Sena boss congratulated Arvind Kejriwal and said, “The people of Delhi have shown that ‘Jan Ki Baat’ will work on the country now and not ‘Mann ki Baat’. The so-called national government that put all its might could not succeed against the broom. The powerful party parachuted its senior leaders in the elections, compared Kejriwal to a terrorist, ignored the local issues... but the people of Delhi stood firmly behind a man who sincerely worked towards development.”
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said the BJP attempted to “polarise”, but the people of Delhi rejected it. Speaking to reporters in Pune, Pawar said, “As usual, the BJP played communal card to polarise voters, but could not succeed. The Assembly elections in Delhi was between AAP and BJP only and so it (BJP) can claim that the vote share went up.”
The CM said that Delhiites have broken the illusion of some that only they are nationalists and those who oppose them are traitors. Pawar said the series of defeats for the BJP will continue and added that regional parties need to remain together to keep the BJP out of power. “You must have seen what has happened in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh earlier. I don’t think the series of defeat [of the BJP] will stop now. However, there is a need for the regional parties to come together to keep BJP out of power,” Pawar said.
Sena minister Anil Parab on Tuesday said the people have defeated the “ego” of the BJP, which intended to “rule indefinitely”. “Ebb and flow are normal in politics, but today the ego that only we can and we will rule has been defeated,” Parab told reporters in Mumbai.
However, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil blamed the “transfer” of the Congress’ votes to the Kejriwal-led party for the defeat of the BJP. Patil said non-BJP parties have come together to keep the national party out of power. “Delhi was once in Congress’s hand when Sheila Dikshit was the chief minister for 15 years. Now they cannot win even one seat. The Congress votes have shifted to AAP to isolate the BJP. All parties are coming together, so that the BJP doesn’t come to power. Let them align, we are not afraid,” Patil said.