Arvind Kejriwal thanked the people of Delhi for 'trusting' him as he was voted back to power for a third term on Tuesday. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers went into celebratory mode at the party headquarters on Tuesday as trends showed the party was set for a massive victory in the Delhi Assembly Elections 2020.
Kejriwal addressed workers from a stage, set up on the roof of the party office and decorated with balloons and flowers, as AAP inched closer to repeating its performance back in 2015 when the party had won 67 seats. The AAP was leading in 63 seats, the BJP in seven constituencies while the Congress drew a blank in the 70-member assembly, according to the latest tally.
The AAP's stupendous victory comes nearly eight months after it suffered a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls in which the party drew a blank while the BJP won all the seven seats.
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As results came in, grooving to the tunes of the party's campaign song - 'Lage Raho Kejriwal' - and drumbeats, hundreds of AAP workers celebrated at the party office. They hugged each other and offered 'ladoos' amid a surcharged atmosphere. Several supporters draped themselves in the Tricolour and flashed victory signs as the giant screen showed the party's surge.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh dedicated the victory to the people of Delhi. "Hindustan jeeta hai (India has won). I want to thank the two crore people of Delhi for making the son of Delhi victorious," Singh said.
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Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was leading in New Delhi Constituency against his BJP rival Sunil Kumar Yadav, while Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia clinched victory in Patparganj. After he was declared winner from the Patparganj seat, Sisodia said the BJP indulged in "politics of hate", but people refused its agenda. Among the AAP heavyweights who won the elections were Raghav Chaddha, Atishi, Gopal Rai, Satyender Jain and Kailash Gahlot.
The elections in the national capital took place in the midst of massive protests in the city and elsewhere over the new citizenship law, an issue which was strongly raised by the BJP top leadership during the campaigning which often turned bitter and vitriolic. The political opponents of the BJP accused the saffron party of carrying out a "divisive" campaign to polarise the voters by consistently highlighting the over 50-day demonstration by a group of women in Shaheen Bagh area. Though BJP's campaign focused on national security issues, the AAP mainly focused on its achievements in the fields of education, healthcare and infrastructure.
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The Congress accepted defeat and vowed to rebuild and revive itself at the grassroots level in the city. It said the poll results also had a message for the BJP that the "most toxic campaign" unleashed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been defeated.
A total of 672 candidates, including 593 men and 79 women, were in the fray for the hotly contested elections.
(With PTI Inputs)