A pall of gloom at Congress headquarters,” “BJP leaders jumping with joy” and “mixed feelings at Aam Aadmi Party office”...That sums up the mood in the camp of three major political parties when the poll results were declared on Friday giving a thumping victory to the BJP.
The mood was jubilant at the BJP KAMlAM office with party supporters celebrating the victory at Chandigarh Parliamentary seat after more than a decade. Sporting saffron-coloured “Modi for PM” caps and unmindful of the summer sun turning sweltering, the party workers set off fireworks and fed each other with desi ghee ladoos to celebrate their victory.
Amid shouting slogans like “Narendra Modi Zindabad”, “Achche din anne wale hai (good days are coming)” and “Kirron Kher Zindabad”, the party workers danced to the vibrating beats of dhol nagadas to celebrate the end of Congress’ rule in the city and at the Centre.The party’s flags were held high by BJP supporters and they enthusiastically welcomed their winning candidate Kher with chants of “Kirron Kher Zindabad”, when she reached the party office at 12 noon to meet party officials and extend her greetings to the party cadre for the victory.
Confident of its victory, the saffron party had started preparing for victory celebrations as early as 6 am on Friday. At the party headquarters, Halwais (sweet makers) were seen sweating it out to prepare a variety of sweets and lunch for the celebrations.From organising a victory procession to distributing sweets, the BJP had all the reasons to be on cloud nine on Friday with party scoring a historic win at the Centre and in Chandigarh.
“People voted for development and Modi… We express gratitude to the public of Chandigarh for extending their support to BJP’s candidate Kirron Kher and helping her to win with a huge margin,” says an exultant Sanjay Tandon, BJP Chandigarh president.
On the other hand, the Chandigarh Congress office at Sector 35 wore a deserted look as the elections results showed massive mandate against the party. The party office witnessed a deathly silence as not a single party worker was seen at its headquarters.Except for the senior Congress leaders who are still putting up a brave front, the cadres were really disappointed and this was quite evident from the forlorn look at party office and Bansal’s home.
In Chandigarh, it seems, the dice was already loaded against the Congress as the opposition parties left no stone unturned to derive political mileage out of the Railway Scam involving party candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla.Putting a brave face, BB Behl, Congress Chandigarh president expressed shock on BJP’s victory and blamed AAP for cutting into Congress’ votes in the city. Bansal had worked hard for the development of the city and it is surprising that people still choose BJP over Congress. “The AAP has got more than 1 lakh votes, which was a major reason for Congress’ defeat here,” adds Behl.
The new entrant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) shared the same fate as of Congress’ despite recording more than one lakh votes in its maiden ballot tussle from Chandigarh parliamentary seat. The party supporters watching the election coverage at AAP office in Sector 21 feels that there is nothing to boost about the voting percentile it gets here as the party was expecting victory from the seat.But, the party remained contented with its impressive show in neighbouring Punjab where it managed to win four seats.
This time, the former Union Railway Minister and four-time MP Pawan Kumar Bansal was in the poll fray to retain his lok Sabha seat against BJP’s Kirron Kher and AAP’s candidate Gul Panag.