Delhi has spoken

 Even before the last vote was cast at the Delhi assembly election 2020, the mood in the national capital was high and expectant during the highly vitriolic campaign launched by the BJP, the ruling party at the Centre against the ruling party in Delhi, the Aam Admi Party(AAP). The BJP had deployed its top guns including everyone from Modi to Shah to its central ministers, party bigwigs and a state chief minister to dictate the narrative. That undoubtedly changed Delhi assembly election into a national election. The AAP was battle ready with Arvind Kejriwal as its chief ministerial face. Surprisingly BJP did not bother to have a chief ministerial face, depending on its proven hate-speech makers to polarise voters. The party was also perhaps over confident because it had an excellent campaigner in prime minister Narendra Modi and a brilliant poll strategist in union home minister Amit Shah. BJP also has enormous resources to feel comfortably complacent. However, when it came to the Delhi voters they preferred AAP’s governance model over BJP’s polarising narrative. The Aam Aadmi Party worked hard towards an image makeover. For a party that emerged out of a nationwide anti-corruption movement, AAP shifted its campaign to focus on its strengths, particularly in the field of education, health, power and water. The AAP also won over voters with further promises of freebies. AAP had delivered on free bus rides for women, no electricity charges for up to 200 units, free Wi-Fi, free pilgrimage for senior citizens and waiver of development charges for new water and sewer connections. AAP had launched the poll campaign ahead of other rival parties by focussing on achievements and development and steering away from contentious issues. The BJP began its campaign after a few weeks with union home minister Amit Shah and prime minister Narendra Modi leading the massive juggernaut against AAP. The strategy of the BJP was to lure AAP and Kejriwal to respond to hate speeches by central ministers, MPs and party bigwigs. BJP’s narrative was scaremongering from biryani to Pakistan and its hate-driven narrative calling Kejriwal a “terrorist” perhaps also worked against it and gave the AAP the edge. The BJP’s attempt to politicise Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of anti-CAA protests over the past two months, also seems to have worked in AAP’s favour. While the AAP continued to skirt the issue and Kejirwal didn’t visit the agitation site even once, the women protesters . Some of the protestors who spoke with media on multiple occasions maintained that they stood by those who favoured “real development” of the country. Responding to these attacks would have taken Kejriwal and AAP away from the politics of development. It was wise on the part of Kejriwal not to respond to BJP’s hate speeches and was also avoided any attack on the prime minister. That left the BJP without an “enemy” that it loved to target in election campaigns. In the end AAP(David)defeated BJP(Goliath) when voters gave Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) a third term in Delhi. The party secured a resounding victory in the assembly election, results of which were declared Tuesday, winning in 62 of the 69 seats so far counted and leaving BJP with only eight seats and most embarrassingly another second successive duck(2015 and 2020)for the Congress. The Delhi result will surely be an inspiration for a desperate opposition but they need a Kejriwal.