Exit polls are not exact polls, was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) response to the pollsters predicting that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was set to sweep the Delhi elections. In a manner, when the results came in, the exactness of the exit polls was only slightly called into question. The exit polls erred in giving AAP less seats than they finally got. Yet, given the close margins by which some of the seats were won, the exit polls were pretty exact in predicting with such certainty that it was going to be a landslide victory for the ruling party. The fluctuating numbers on the television screens throughout the morning, as leads poured in from the counting centres, were testimony to the closeness of the margins.
Anti-incumbency may have played a very minute role in Delhi, as Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP is back in the national capital having swept the capital city once again, and is set to continue its development for the next five years. It was always impossible to repeat the feat of five years ago when AAP won 67 of the 70 seats, but their tally of 62 came close to doing just that, and this figure is more than good enough to have their way in the Vidhan Sabha. The oppostion would really have to struggle to stall any projects and policies of the Delhi government. The big question now is whether AAP can maintain the momentum of the past term in the years ahead.
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For certain, Delhi voted for development, and BJP needs to admit that its campaign lacked in giving the voters what they wanted. The party has to relook at its programmes and policies. On the other hand, the results place added pressure on AAP to deliver. They have been returned because the people of Delhi want performance. AAP gave it to them in the past five years, and now the expectations will be much higher. The reforms in education and the many freebies or welfare schemes have stood them in good stead in the polls. How AAP improves upon this – work politics is what Kejriwal has called it – will decide the fate of the party at the next elections.
The Delhi election results have been in tune with most other State Assembly election outcomes, where BJP has not been the first choice of the people. Despite the massive victory in the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has not been able to repeat the feat in States. This was evident even before the 2019 LS polls, where Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were concerned. In this instance, Delhi had voted for all 7 MPs from the BJP less than a year ago, and that was what the party had been banking on, but in the Assembly polls the result was completely different. The result, when set against the 2015 tally, shows that there has been a massive increase in the BJP’s vote share, but it was not enough to bring the party to power.
For Congress this is a moment for some deep instrospection. The elections didn’t come as a surprise, nor did the results. It is plainly clear that Congress was not prepared for the polls, and so repeated its ignominous tally of 2015 when it had got zero seats. Why is it that the party that has governed Delhi in the past, has in two consecutive elections been unable to even open its account? The stopgap arrangements at the top level of the Congress are beginning to show their ineffectiveness, and it is for the party to rebuild itself if it wants to remain relevant in the State.
For now, it is all eyes on AAP and Kejriwal, to see how they take forward the governance of Delhi. It’s been a clean sweep, AAP has to give clean politics.
