Sir — This refers to the editorial, “A massive mandate” (February 11). That the sweeping victory of the Aam Aadmi Party is a huge setback to the BJP, is an understatement. We expected the election in Delhi to have been a fight between the AAP and the BJP, but Mr Arvind Kejriwal’s massive landslide win goes to prove that the BJP could not read the mood of the voters and faltered at various points. BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi’s statement after the defeat will not help the party either.
The Congress’s vote-bank moved entirely to the AAP, and that helped the latter in securing the major win. Though the likes of Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar did not have any role to play in Mr Kejriwal’s victory, their reaction showed that they are still terrified of the Modi factor in their respective States. In the wake of such a massive win, the AAP would be tempted to be ambitious. It has said that it would fight alone in West Bengal. It is better for the party to concentrate on Delhi first and govern it properly, before venturing out. As was rightly pointed out by Mr Kejriwal, the party shouldn’t get arrogant, but remain grounded.