Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has taken a beating in its backyard as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) walked away with all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. With Assembly elections just eight months away, the party is confident of winning the confidence of Delhiites.
AAP Delhi Convenor and a Minister in Arvind Kejriwal Cabinet, Gopal Rai has said that there is no alternative to AAP’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi and they will win Delhi Assembly elections due in February, 2020.
According to political analysts, though AAP has lost the political battle in Lok Sabha elections, the party will not leave any stone unturned to win back the confidence of its core vote bank.
“There is possibility that the voters who shifted towards Congress may come back to AAP as the Kejriwal Government has performed well in the fields of Education and Health. “I am pretty much sure that AAP will not form any alliance with the Congress in Delhi before Assembly polls,” said a political observer.
“Arvind Kejriwal has six months to work and if he is able to win hearts and minds of voters by bringing developments and introducing health related schemes and investing in improving civic facilities, the party may regain the faith of voters in assembly elections,” said S P Arora, an avid watcher of Delhi politics.
“In Lok Sabha elections 2019, around 70 per cent Muslims votes drifted towards Congress but in assembly elections, AAP may get the major share than Congress. Besides, the AAP will also get support from other voters who have greatly benefited by development initiatives such as the developments carried out in JJ clusters, developing school infrastructure and providing free health services like Mohalla clinics,” he said.
When asked whether Modi factor will play a role in Delhi Assembly elections, experts said that there will be definitely an impact but not on large scale. “Though it is too early to predict. There will be a triangular contest between AAP, Congress and BJP”, said Arora.
Meanwhile, AAP’s vote share has declined in Delhi. AAP’s vote share that was the bedrock of Kejriwal’s pre-poll alliance bid with the Congress in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, shrank to 18.26 per cent from 32.9 percent in 2014 Lok Sabha election and to 54 per cent votes in 2015 Assembly polls where it bagged 67 of the 70 Assembly seats.
The AAP in the 2013 assembly election was just about a year old but got 29.5 per cent vote share which rose to 54 per cent in 2015 but it lost all the Parliamentary seats in Delhi and on five seat, AAP candidates were placed third. It is going to be a tough journey from here as the Congress which secured 22.5 per cent votes in Lok Sabha polls and finished second in five of the seven seats in Delhi, will try hard to win back its vote share in the next assembly election as well,” said another political observer.
AAP had pulled off a spectacular victory in the Delhi assembly elections of 2015, winning 67 of the 70 seats despite a clean sweep by the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha election. “Delhi Assembly elections would be a no holds barred election as BJP which has tasted blood in Lok Sabha elections, will try to win assembly polls too. “However, Arvind Kejriwal stands in its way whose popularity among the poor is as strong as it was in 2015”, said a political analyst not willing to be identified.
