The Implications Of Delhi Elections

The Delhi elections are done. The results are not out yet but for the most part it is not important because the implications for the major players is quite clear.

For BJP it is quite clear that this will be Modi’s first loss after an extremely long time (even if the BJP miraculously wins the implications remain the same). The media made this election into a referendum against Modi as if wins in other states and a large number of seats in J&K were meaningless. But it is quite clear that the dysfunction in Delhi BJP ran too deep for Modi to do anything about. Delhi is that kind of city where power and money run amok and it affects everyone. The Delhi BJP cadre is as corrupt as everyone else. Last election when the BJP became the largest party, it had projected Dr. Harshvardhan who is that rare clean Delhi insider and he overcame the dysfunction. This time Kiran Bedi who is clean but an outsider which made it well near impossible for her to overcome Delhi BJP problems.

Delhi is a glorified municipality with no bearing on the workings of the central government. A loss here will not translate into losses in important upcoming elections in Bihar, WB and UP (now those are important states where losses will mean loss of control in Rajyasabha). Congress always did well in Delhi which never translated into wins anywhere else. But there is a clear message for Modi and Shah. Indian voters (like voters everywhere) are fickle and they want tangible and visible results. Clearly all of Modi’s decisions and work has not translated into visible results. That it has been less than a year to clean of 65 years of rot does not earn you any respite from the voters. Clearly the price control in commodities was not sold to the voters effectively. Therefore in the upcoming elections, effective communication with the voters without offering them freebies. This means discovering campaigners other than Modi.

For AAP implications could not be more important. Even if due to some extreme bad luck they lose or get lesser than expected number of seats, they have established themselves as players to be reckoned with. More importantly, everyone who hates Modi (that is a larger number) is going to rally behind AAP. They will get a disproportionate amount of press and their fundraising capabilities are going to skyrocket. Kejriwal has now become the Goliath slayer, the common man who took on big bad Modi and bested him. He will now become the shoulder upon which leftists, liberals and media mavens will fire their guns from. After the last elections he had earned monikers like AK49 or “bhagoda”. Now he will be called CM again. This time around he will not quit. We all have an idea how he will perform (especially with those large number of promised freebies) but to go into that at the time of his victory will be churlish. We should let him and the entire anti-Modi brigade enjoy this huge victory thanks to the wise voters of Delhi. Kejriwal has now become relevant again and he already is being projected by the great leftist blowhard Rajdeep Sardesai (he also has become relevant by proxy) as Congress’ alternative on the national level.

For Congress the implications are dire. So dire that they merit a blogspot of its own.

For India, the implications are not good. We are back to being a fractured democracy instead of a solid two party system. Again, thank you voters of Delhi. The implications will be discussed along with the implications for Congress.