Delhi Elections: Factors Which Helped AAP To Knock BJP Over

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi chief Minister to be, Arvind Kejriwal is all set to be sworn in for the third time, leading his party to a stunning victory over the BJP. When Arvind Kejriwal stormed to power in 2015 with AAP winning 67 seats out of 70, he jolted the Modi Shah combine, coming as the Delhi defeat did on the back of BJP's triumphant Lok Sabha campaign in 2014.

For the BJP, there are many lessons to be learnt. It went leaderless into the Delhi elections banking solely on the charisma of PM Narendra Modi and playing the nationalist card.

In the end, the BJP paid the price for projecting Manoj Tiwari as its face for Delhi without asserting that he would be the party's chief ministerial candidate. Secondly, its campaign model became a bit too familiar.

BJP leaders like Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma and Kapil Mishra among others, took a robust Hindutva line which proved to be to the party's disadvantage. Arvind Kejriwal was quick to adapt his party's strategy to the BJP's sharp attacks. Kejriwal took a leaf out of PM Modi's playbook when he countered Parvesh Verma's terrorist jibe.

The AAP supremo reminded people that he had given up his prestigious IRS job to serve the country. February 11, Kejriwal predicted, would determine whether the people of Delhi consider him their brother or son, or see him as a terrorist, he said, hitting back at the BJP.

For the most part, Kejriwal kept the focus on issues like schools, Mohalla clinics, free electricity and water supply and other welfare measures which matter to the man in the street in the national capital. He stayed away from issues like Shaheen Bagh and projected development as his main plank.

A weak Congress strengthened AAP's cause immensely in the national capital. Candidates of the grand old party were left to fend for themselves in every way and had little organisational support.

In the end, PM Modi's record of governance had no bearing on the elections in Delhi. Amit Shah's organisational leadership and his campaign blitzkrieg shored up the party's performance by pushing the vote share higher by 6%. Beyond that in the David versus Goliath fight, AAP trumped BJP convincingly as results seem to bear out.