After their meteoric rise in the Delhi Assembly elections, the spirits of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were dampened on Friday for they failed to win a single seat in their home turf.
However, the leaders of the rookie party have found hope in the fact that, in Delhi, they managed to push the giant Congress party to the third place in the general elections. The immediate impact of their premature resignation from the Delhi Government coupled with the Modi wave might have impacted in the national polls, yet the trend depicts that might not be the case if the Capital witnesses another Assembly elections in a few months from now.
The top leadership of AAP was a disappointed lot on result day of the 16 lok Sabha elections for failing to make a mark in the city. “It is important to note that, the vote share of AAP has increased in Delhi in the lok Sabha elections. But we could not win a seat in the Capital because the vote share of BJP increased way more than it was anticipated,” said Yogendra Yadav, AAP leader who himself toppled down the rankings to land up only at the fourth place in Gurgaon. The lowest margin between the winning BJP and the AAP was that of 1,06,802 in North-West Delhi where the party had fielded Rakhi Birla. The highest margin was in West Delhi where AAP stood second with a difference of 2,68,586 votes.
Despite the bitter experience, the AAP played an underlying role in the polling pattern of the city as it managed as second position for itself in each of the seven seats in the Capital. The Congress was left thoroughly decimated as it couldn’t climb beyond the third position in any of the seats. Yadav accepted that the results may affect the coming Delhi Assembly elections, but said there is still ample hope. “We are disappointed by the Delhi results as our hopes were of winning at least two-three seats. The fact that we are at No. 2 in Delhi is indicative of the fact that people still want us,” explained Yadav.