Despite his own party’s total decimation and the fact that he himself had campaigned for a party destined to doom in the Delhi State election, Kerala’s Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Tuesday chose to interpret the victory of the Aam Aadmi Party as a setback for the BJP in the Centre. “There was a strong anti-BJP wave in Delhi. In that context, traditional Congress votes went to the AAP,” said Chandy, who had campaigned for a full day for the Congress in Delhi areas like Mayur Vihar where Keralites were residing in large numbers. Quite expectedly, Chandy refused to ascribe the responsibility for his party’s defeat to the central leadership.
“We will do a thorough introspection on our failures and will work alongside the people,” the Chief Minister said. “The Delhi people have given a fitting reply to those who speak one thing when they are in the Opposition and do the opposite when they get power. In the ultimate analysis, one can see that there has been a strong anti-BJP sentiment in Delhi,” he added.
State Congress president VM Sudheeran admitted that the defeat his party faced in Delhi was beyond their worst fears but he opined that the victory of the Aam Aadmi Party was just a temporary phenomenon. He pointed out that even the BJP, which had scored a big victory in the Parliament polls, had faced a drubbing in the Delhi election.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala went to the extent of suggesting that the Congress should learn its lessons from the debacle and rectify its mistakes. Traditional votes in Delhi had flowed to the AAP because the people there had a feeling that the AAP alone could defeat the BJP, he said. Chennithala also had campaigned in the Delhi election.
Kerala Assembly’s Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan, a CPI(M) central committee member, said the AAP achieved the resounding victory in Delhi due to the “arrogance” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his autocratic style of functioning. Achuthanandan also congratulated Arvind Kejriwal for his party’s victory in the Delhi Assembly election.
In a statement issued in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, Achuthanandan said the AAP had scored such a huge victory “because of a strong stand taken by the people against the anti-people policies of the autocratic style of functioning of the arrogant Narendra Modi who ignored the people”. He also said, “Another feature of this election is that the Congress has been dumped yet again in Delhi just like in other parts of the country.”