 "AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, party leaders Ashutosh, Ashish Khaitan, Sanjay Singh and Kumar Vishwas wave to party volunteers as they celebrate victory in the Delhi Assembly polls, at Patel Nagar in New Delhi on Tuesday.")
That the impact of the Delhi poll was not restricted to the capital was evident within hours of the positive trend for AAP. The Janata Dal (United)’s Nitish Kumar, while congratulating the AAP, emphasised that the “results are a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Delhi is the heart of the country, so it reflects the mood of the country”.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who had before the polls publicly wished the AAP success, lost no time in congratulating. The perception of Modi’s invincibility had clearly been breached and the opposition parties appeared to sense an opportunity.
The coming Bihar polls are likely to be the first test for the re-empowered opposition. The JD(U) and Rashtriya Janata Dal hope to leverage the BJP decimation, forcing the latter to recalibrate what it believed was sure to be an easy victory. All eyes would thereafter be on the Assembly polls in Bengal in 2016 and Uttar Pradesh in 2017.
The springboard that the BJP hoped to make of Delhi has clearly failed. The large ‘Poorvanchali’ votebank from UP and Bihar, which went all out to support AAP, political commentators feel, could have an effect on the polls in their home states. Should the AAP step into the fray there, it would gain from the positive feedback from brethren in Delhi.
The rout of the Congress from even traditional minority strongholds in the capital, with not a single Muslim Congress face making the cut, has multiple lessons for the established parties. Nitish Kumar, who himself stands at a critical juncture in Bihar politics, underscored the significance. “Delhi is the national capital, where people from all parts of the country live, so it reflects the changing mood of the country against the BJP-led government at the Centre,” he declared.
The winning streak of the BJP which had bagged Harayana, Maharsahtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, now being halted for the first time after May 2014, has come in the shot in the arm for a beleaguered Opposition. The principle Opposition Congress which had been reduced to insignificance after its paltry 44 in the Lok Sabha, saw BJP riding rough shod over the Opposition. But the Delhi verdict will now stop the BJP in their tracks and only sharpen the Opposition attacks whether it be on the saffron brigade's polarization aganeda or the 'ghar wapasi' programme. The Opposition now has gained renewed vigour to take up the issue of the Prime Minister's much criticized silence on church attacks in the capital.
Stripped of the cloak of invincibility the Opposition perceives the BJP as vulnerable and the perception of the Modi wave having receded has done wonders to the confidence of non- BJP parties and even brought long estranged parties together to breach the BJP wall.
