MCD election 2017 results: Kejriwal needs a 'Gujarat model' to beat Modi wave
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election results reflect the mood on the streets. The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) resounding victory — despite ten years of anti-incumbency and after running arguably one of the most corrupt and inefficient municipal corporations in the country — once again underlines the fact that there is a massive Narendra Modi wave across the country, and it shows no signs of abating any time soon.
And that can only be bad news for his opponents.
The prime minister and Amit Shah are evidently on a winning streak. They are men with the midas touch — such is PM Modi's hold over the electorate that without even campaigning in the polls, he carried the elections on his shoulders.
Not only did his image help buck the trend of 10 years of anti-incumbency, but his party also changed the entire lot of 270 candidates and yet won in such an emphatic manner.
The BJP's victory, coming as it does on the heels of the sweep in Uttar Pradesh, puts the BJP in pole position in the assembly elections set to be held in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat later in the year.
In fact, there many who believe that given the level of support he enjoys, he may not have much of a problem winning the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
With two-and-a-half years still left for the polls, a lot could happen by the time the next general elections are held, but, for now, Modi and the BJP appear unassailable.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stands diminished and the election results have come as no less than a rude awakening. Its hopes of emerging as the principal challenger to PM Modi at the national level have received a serious setback.
For a party that swept Delhi, winning 67 of the 70 seats in the last Assembly elections, the moment of reckoning has arrived. The ground has slipped from under its feet, and unless its leadership does a major course correction, it could spell more bad news.
To begin with, Kejriwal might want to rein in his aspirations of expanding his party's footprint across the country. He will also have to focus more on governing Delhi, despite all the constraints and hurdles put in his way by the Centre. In the time that he has till the next Delhi Assembly polls, he needs to come up with a governance model that he can showcase, much in the manner Modi did with the "Gujarat model".
The Delhi chief minister needs to stop playing the victim card and blindly railing against the Centre. The people voted him to power not to fight the Centre, but to deliver on his promises.
For the Congress party, the bad news just got worse. From being a national party that ruled the capital for a record 15 years, it has now become a peripheral force in Delhi and been pushed to the third position. The Congress might draw some solace from the 11 per cent increase in their vote share; however, in reality, the figure amounts to nothing more than clutching at straws.
Barring Punjab, the party is yet to win a major election since 2013, and unless it begins its resurgence, its workers and leaders will continue to leave it for greener pastures.
For the beleaguered Congress party, there appears to be little light at the end of the tunnel.