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India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took a thrashing yesterday in elections to the state government in Delhi.
The Hindu supremacist and fanatically neoliberal party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi won just three seats out of 70, with the rest taken by the centre-left Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party (AAP) of former tax official Arvind Kejriwal.
Victory for the self-styled anti-corruption party indicates how fed up Indians are with the endemic corruption of the BJP and the once omnipotent Congress party.
Thousands of jubilant AAP supporters beat drums and danced after the election commission announced the overwhelming win.
“Such a big mandate is very scary and we should live up to people’s expectations,” Mr Kejriwal told his cheering supporters, who chanted: “Five years, Kejriwal” and showered rose petals upon him outside party offices in New Delhi.
He had previously taken office in December 2013 at the head of a minority coalition government with Congress.
However, Mr Kejriwal was forced to resign a year ago when
opposition politicians blocked a Bill to create an independent body with power to investigate politicians and civil servants suspected of corruption.
The new chief minister for Delhi said that BJP leaders’ arrogance had led to its poor showing.
Mr Modi said that he had congratulated Mr Kejriwal and assured him of federal government support in developing the capital.
While concentrating on his anti-corruption message, the AAP leader also drew support from working-class voters with promises of subsidised electricity and he has opened a New Delhi complaint hotline.
The Communist Party of India — Marxist (CPI-M) fielded just three candidates for the Delhi state assembly polls in which seven left-wing parties had agreed to unite in 14 seats.
It had urged its supporters to vote for the AAP in the other 56 seats to defeat the BJP and Congress.
CPI-M political bureau member Sitaram Yechury said yesterday that the results provided an opportunity to bring together like-minded secular and democratic parties.
