New Delhi/ Bhubaneswar: From 8 seats in 2020 to a dramatic win in 2005, the BJP outmatched Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the fiercely fought Delhi Assembly Election.
The saffrony party is set to form the government in the national capital after 27 years, surpassing the majority mark with 48 seats, while the AAP trails behind with 22 seats. Atishi emerged as the only silver lining for AAP with big guns like Arvind Kejriwal, party’s Number 2 Manish Sisodia and prominent minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, suffering a crushing defeat.
The Congress, on the other hand, failed to open account for the third time, but found some solace with in AAP’s defeat and an increase in its vote share.
With this, the prediction of BJP national vice-president Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, who is an MP from Odisha, that the saffron party will come to power with a two-thirds majority has come true. He was the election in-charge of Delhi and assigned the onerous task of ensuring the party’s win in the national capital.
Referring to BJP’s success in Odisha, where a regional party dominated, he had earlier asserted the party’s focus on performance and fulfilling promises will bring change in Delhi too. Baijayant was also the in-charge during the 2022 MCD elections when BJP set a new record in the vote share bringing the lead down to 2% from double digits, and he carried the momentum to the Assembly elections with ‘charged-up’ karyakarta on the ground.
Speaking to the media on Saturday, Baijayant said the electorate’s unwavering faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guarantees was the biggest factor for the party’s historic performance in the Delhi Assembly elections.
“And this is the biggest reason that we won and the ‘AAP-da’ that was imposed on Delhi, the kind of corruption, the kind of false promises, the kind of fights they had every day, there was no name for development. People wanted to change this and our lakhs of workers were working hard for months. People of Delhi want development. Now the double-engine government is in place here. Conflict-free governance will be there,” he asserted.
Odisha BJP president, Manmohan Samal, also lauded Baijayant for the ‘collective win’ of the party in the elections in Delhi. “He has been diligently serving as the national vice-president of the party for several years. He oversaw the party’s our campaign strategy in Delhi, and delivered exceptionally by fostering unity within the ranks,” he added.
