January 22, 2025

As predicted by the exit polls, the BJP has swept Delhi in the MCD polls. AAP and Congress have no place to hide. The Congress, especially the DPCC chief Ajay Maken, has been civil enough to accept defeat graciously. But AAP – the party of puffed up chests and false sense of superiority – has again blamed the EVMs for its crushing defeat. Party spokesmen have termed the BJP victory as EVM lehar. Sour grapes, Mr Kejriwal? Let alone Narendra Modi, he is not even able to counter Manoj Tiwari. Still he hopes for Punjab and Goa, even as Delhi has slipped out of his grasp.

The people of Delhi have at last seen through the veil Kejriwal cunningly put over his private persona. They have come to recognize him as a megalomaniac who thinks of himself as nothing less than God. They have also come to recognize him as a person who thinks that government – and hence public – money is his own, to be spent for lavish parties and in defending his excesses in court. They have understood that he is a loudmouth who is incapable of governing NCR. Hence, they have not voted for him. The EVMs have nothing to do with it.

Now is the time for Kejriwal to accept defeat and resign. But he will not do so. He has made it a habit of resigning for other things. But not where accountability on his part is concerned. When the people gave him almost all the assembly seats, they had unequivocally reposed their faith in him. But if they have now rejected him, he should own up to it. But shame is not a virtue that megalomaniacs possess. Neither is humility. Like most other one-man (or woman) party opposition leaders, Kejriwal will continue to see demons in the process – currently EVMs – that have lead to his defeat.

AAP is an experiment that has failed. It has failed because one man’s writ runs in all things. That man cannot be right all the time. Hence, that man is not running the show efficiently. That man is taking the party on a downward slide. Kejriwal’s government in Delhi has been the most corrupt ever. The only thing he knows to win people over is bribing them by offering them freebies. This time he offered to do away with house tax. Delhi’ites arenot fools. They know that municipal corporations cannot be run without money. Hence they rejected Kejriwal’s utopian offer and voted the BJP to power. Now it is up to him to salvage some pride by allocating money to the MCD for Delhi’s upkeep. Otherwise the people will not give his party a single seat in 2019-20.