Delhi poll debacle failure of Amit Shah, not PM Modi’s, says Shiv Sena

New Delhi: A day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced a crushing defeat in Delhi Assembly elections, its former ally Shiv Sena said that the poor poll performance is a failure of Union Home Minister Amit Shah rather than of Prime Minister Narendra Modi or BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda.

The BJP is losing state elections continuously because it faced “tough competition” from either a party or a leader in state polls unlike in the Lok Sabha elections where Modi’s charisma won them power single-handedly, the Sena said in its mouthpiece Saamna.

The Sena mouthpiece, which said that the win for Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi election was not “surprising”, has been backing Kejriwal for its model work carried out in the national capital in last five years.

“Home minister Amit Shah had made Delhi election a matter of honour, not prime minister Narendra Modi. JP Nadda recently took over the reins of the party, but the real impresario was Amit Shah. He wanted to win an election before his tenure as party president ended. They lost Jharkhand as well as Maharashtra. AAP’s flag is fluttering in the national capital while Shiv Sena chief minister is installed in the financial capital,” the editorial said on Wednesday.

Shah had led the BJP charge in Delhi, addressing a slew of rallies and even going for door-to-door campaign. He also took feedback from party workers.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party further said that the poll debacle is defeat of “ego, arrogance and the attitude of ‘what we say is the rule’ attitude”. It credited Kejriwal for its campaign, which was focused on development and the work carried out by his party as opposed to the BJP’s “polarisation attempt” that failed to click with voters of the national capital.

“The BJP tried to build its poll campaign around issues such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and labelling the Shaheen Bagh protest in Delhi as agitation of Muslims alone, but the electorate did not fall for such “polarisation” and voted in favour of Kejriwal,” said Sena. “All the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi were won by the BJP last year, but in the Assembly polls it faced a strong local alternative in the form of Kejriwal, who sought votes on the basis of the work he did,” it further said.

The AAP made a stunning comeback in Delhi, winning 62 of the 70 seats in Delhi Assembly. The BJP though improved its tally, it couldn’t reach the double digit and came second with a score of eight.