Modi Magic Works In MCD, AAP Stares At A Meltdown

- Charanjit Ahuja

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s strategy of putting up Prime Minister, Narendra Modi as the poster boy for the Delhi Municipal Corporations elections has paid off well for the party in power. The party reinvented itself in Delhi by using none other than the Prime Minister as a benchmark. It is perhaps for the first time that MCD elections have been fought seeking votes in the name of the Prime Minister.

Except for few reverses in the Delhi, Bihar and Punjab assembly elections, the Prime Minister has been a successful vote catcher in practically all other polls notwithstanding discordant voices against demonetization, the narrow parochialism and resultant jingoism. It is said that Sensex or the sensitive index is barometer of country’s economy and well being and for the first time in history it breached 30,000 mark as the benchmark climbed 190 points to close at 30,133. It is clear now that the Aam Aadmi Party which came into existence with much hope and as a sort of moment is finding the ground slipping.

Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi, finds that the same people who supported AAP and made it win 67 of 70 seats are deserting the party. The AAP should have seen the writing on the wall after it got trounced in Punjab and Goa Assembly elections thanks to its internal rift and questions over its performance or lack of performance in Delhi. Bhagwant Mann, MP from Punjab had blamed the Delhi coterie for the below-par showing in Punjab. Kejriwal’s daily rifts with the Lt. Governor was also blamed for the mess called Delhi streets. However, after winning a thumping majority in the 2015 Assembly elections the party could manage just 48 out of 270 wards.