NEW DELHI, Feb 10:
After securing a landslide victory and being elected leader of the AAP Legislature Party, Arvind Kejriwal today met Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and staked claim to form the Government in Delhi.
Kejriwal, who was accompanied by senior party leader Manish Sisodia, was with Jung for around 25 minutes.
After the meeting, Raj Niwas issued a press release saying the Lt Governor will now send his report with his recommendation to the President to enable Government formation, a formality under the rules.
Kejriwal is likely to be sworn-in as Chief Minister on February 14 at the Ramlila Grounds.
The release said after the declaration of results, Kejriwal conveyed to the Lt Governor that he has been elected as the leader of Aam Aadmi Party Legislature Party.
Earlier, Kejriwal was elected the leader of AAP Legislature Party at a meeting of the newly elected MLAs.
Kejriwal’s name was proposed by his close aide Sisodia, who himself won from Patparganj, and was overwhelmingly endorsed by the MLAs.
Addressing the meeting of the MLAs at the Constitution Club, Kejriwal warned the legislators against showing arrogance which, he said, was responsible for the defeat of both Congress and BJP.
“He (Kejriwal) said, Congress was reduced to zero because of its arrogance….BJP at the Centre does not have any major scam against it but it was also their arrogance that led to their defeat in the election.
“He warned us not to show any kind of arrogance through our action and to respect the kind of mandate we have got,” said an AAP MLA.
Kejriwal asked the MLAs to work to fulfill the promises made by the party, Adarsh Shastri, AAP MLA from Dwarka, said.
Earlier, halting the Modi juggernaut in its tracks, the AAP today scored a landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly elections by winning as many as 67 out of the 70 seats leaving BJP with only three and completely decimating Congress which drew a blank.
In an election that was billed as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the AAP tornado threw veterans of both BJP and Congress into the electoral dustbin in their traditional bastions. BJP leaders accepted the defeat as a “setback” but dismissed suggestions that it was against the Modi Government’s performance.
The AAP’s feat was rarely achieved in any State in the past. Only once in 1989, the Sikkim Sangram Parishad had won all the 32 seats in the Assembly.
Former Revenue Service officer Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP mascot who spearheaded the party’s victory march, himself won the prestigious New Delhi seat by a margin of over 31,500 votes defeating the nearest BJP rival Nupur Sharma, a political novice. Former Minister and Congress veteran Kiran Walia came a poor third with 4,700 votes and lost her deposit.
The BJP’s humiliation was complete with its Chief Ministerial face Kiran Bedi losing in the traditional stronghold of Krishna Nagar which was long held by party veteran Harsh Vardhan. She lost by more than 2,000 votes.
Congress’ CM candidate Ajay Maken also suffered a crushing defeat by a margin of over 50,000 votes at the hands of a novice from AAP Som Dutt in Sadar Bazar constituency and lost his deposit. Maken resigned as Congress General Secretary taking responsibility for the debacle.
Those who bit the electoral dust included BJP leaders Jagdish Mukhi, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Krishna Tirath who had defected from Congress on the eve of elections and Congress leaders A K Walia, Harun Yusuf, Chaudhury Prem Singh and Raj Kumar Chouhan, who are all Ministers and Mahabal Mishra, a former MP.
President Pranab Mukh-erjee’s daughter Sarmistha Mukherjee also lost in her electoral debut on a Congress ticket in Greater Kailash.
Kejriwal will be sworn in as Chief Minister on February 14, exactly the day one year ago he stepped down after 49 days in office.
In an address to his supporters who danced and cheered outside the party headquarters day-long, Kejriwal cautioned against getting arrogant, saying if that happens, people will punish them in the next election.
Modi spoke to Kejriwal in the morning congratulating him on his victory and assured him of Centre’s support for development in Delhi.
In all elections that followed the spectacular victory in the May Lok Sabha polls, the BJP formed Governments in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and emerged the second largest party in Jammu and Kashmir with the highest vote share.
The Delhi results today prompted some BJP allies and rivals to attack the saffron party. Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray tweeted that he agreed with Gandhian Anna Hazare that the election result was a defeat for Modi.
“Delhi has shown that tsunami is bigger than a wave…It is a message to those who lord over Delhi,” Thackeray said.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, with whose party BJP has been having a running battle, said “arrogance and political vendetta have been defeated today” and that BJP’s “balloon has burst”.
She said, “Delhi election is turning point of present political situation. Shows political vendetta has no place in a democracy. Country needed this change.”
Her party spokesman Derek O’Brien said the message from the Delhi polls was “Bhaag (run) Modi Bhaag”.
BJP’s Tamil Nadu ally PMK said the reason for AAP’s landslide victory was that people were yearning for change due to “corruption” in Government administration.
JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar said the poll outcome in Delhi was a referendum on Modi and “it reflects the mood of the country”.
Congress, which ruled the national capital for 15 years till December 2013, failed to open its account.
Bedi also congratulated Kejriwal saying “full marks to Arvind.”
In his address to his supporters, Kejriwal saluted the people of Delhi for doing a “wonder” by giving them a landslide victory.
“You have done a wonder. When you are on the path of truth, all the forces of universe come together to help you. I salute the people of Delhi. It’s a victory of truth,” he said.
The defeat for BJP was all the more bitter because it had won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the last year’s general elections. The party’s gamble of making Bedi its Chief Ministerial candidate back fired.
The only saving grace for the BJP was victory of its former state unit president Vijender Gupta who won from Rohini.
Kejriwal thanked Modi for his greetings and said he would like to meet him soon to discuss issues related to Delhi. He told the Prime Minister that he will need the Centre’s help.
Annihilated in Delhi polls, a shocked Congress today promised to “reinvent” itself ànd revisit its “idealogical construct”.
Party chief Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi congratulated Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi party for their landslide victory saying they “respect” the verdict.
The party’s face for the polls Ajay Maken resigned as AICC general secretary owning moral responsibility for the defeat while a senior party leader suggested that internal dissension was also one of the reasons for the total decimation of the party in Delhi.
Insulating Rahul Gandhi from the blame for the defeat, Maken, who was the Campaign Committee Chief of the party, said that the election was fought on local issues.
At the same time, he also appeared placing a portion of the blame at former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s door saying that people questioned Congress as to why it did not fulfil the promises made now when it was in power in Delhi for last 15 years. Dikshit and Maken are not on very best of terms.
Asked what is the way out for Congress as people have rejected the party with a new face this time as well after voting out three-term Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in last Assembly polls, he said that the result is a “continuation of 2013 mandate” and it’s more an “affirmation for AAP” than “rejection of any other party”.
“Whenever we went to people with our manifesto promises like cheap electricity and right to shelter, people questioned why did you not do in last 15 years. We have to rebuild that credibility among people…. We will re-invent the party,” he said. (PTI)
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