Indian PM Modi’s party wins election in capital Delhi after decades
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Bharatiya Janata Party supporters celebrating outside the party's state headquarters in New Delhi on Feb 8.
PHOTO: AFP
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NEW DELHI – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pulled off a victory in India’s national capital in a sign of his continuing popularity.
In a post on social media platform X, Mr Modi announced his party’s win in Delhi.
“It is our guarantee that we will leave no stone unturned in developing Delhi, improving the overall quality of life for the people and ensuring that Delhi has a prime role to play in building a Viksit Bharat (developed India),” he wrote.
The BJP is expected to win 48 seats in the 70-member legislative assembly
Its main rival, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which means the common man’s party, is ahead in 22 seats. The final counting of the votes is still under way.
AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal also conceded defeat in a post on X.
A victory in Delhi would mark the third major electoral success for the BJP in the last four months after winning the states of Haryana and Maharashtra.
Not only would this win help the BJP recover from the setback in national elections in 2024, but it would also signal that the Modi government’s record tax cuts in the federal budget last week have got the approval of middle-class consumers.
Former Delhi chief minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal after casting his vote at a polling station in New Delhi on Feb 5. He has conceded defeat.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
“It is a big feather in their cap,” said Dr Rahul Verma, a political scientist and fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. “Winning this state means a big thing for them.”
Several exit polls released on Feb 5 predicted a win for Mr Modi’s BJP, which last controlled Delhi in 1998.
The incumbent AAP has been in power in Delhi since 2015 but suffered reputational damage in recent years due to corruption allegations against some of its leaders.
Most of the AAP initiatives were from their first term and they did not show an improvement on civic issues, said Dr Verma. “Subsidies alone cannot make a difference to electoral outcomes.”
Several leaders from the AAP have spent months in jail amid allegations of impropriety in a liquor licence distribution case, impacting their ability to govern.
The party has consistently denied the allegations and described them as a political witch-hunt by the BJP-led federal government that controls the country’s investigation agencies. BLOOMBERG
