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BJP
Trounced In Delhi Polls
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| Asif Mohammad khan |
By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, March 28 (IslamOnline) - The ruling Hindu right-wing Bhartiya
Janata Party (BJP) once again received a body blow in the just
concluded elections of the Delhi Municipal Corporation. BJP, which
ruled the corporation, lost all but 17 seats in its own bastion. The
Congress Party had a landslide victory with 107 seats out of the
total of 134.
The
BJP which swept all the seven seats of Parliament from Delhi in the
1998 parliamentary elections, lost everything in one go. Only last
February, it lost miserably in the legislative assemblies in four
states, previously ruled on its own or as a ruling-coalition
partner. So strong was the anger against the BJP that Congress made
inroads even in areas where it had never won during the forty years
of the MCD. These include areas dominated by two previous chief
ministers of Delhi.
The
BJP was expecting more than a hundred seats till last week. Later
the party scaled down its expectations and claimed that it would win
at least seventy seats. Such heavy defeats have not been recorded
even in the Delhi legislative assembly polls. These results clearly
indicate rising popular resentment against the BJP government at the
center and its divisive policies.
Though
the BJP leaders blamed the recently passed anti-poor budget for
their defeat, they also conceded that the large-scale violence
fanned by the BJP and its sister organizations in Gujarat also
contributed to its defeat. Ordinary people have come to see the BJP
as a problem and liability which failed utterly to solve India's
real problems.
All-India
Congress Committee (AICC) member Kamal Nath said that it was not the
local issues but national issues that helped his party win the Delhi
municipal elections. "This election was held at the peak of
Godhra, Ayodhya and anti-terrorism POTO law, and Delhi's people saw
the BJP's real face. They not only rejected BJP but did so
decisively, with determination. They not only defeated the sitting
BJP members but also rejected their policies," he said.
The
most remarkable victory is that of Mohammad Asif Khan, the
incarcerated councilor from Muslim-dominated Okhla area in South
Delhi. He won by the highest-ever margin, defeating his BJP rival by
more than 14,500 votes.
Mohammad
Asif Khan is currently locked up in Delhi's Tihar Jail for posters
he put up on his constituency walls condemning the U.S. attack on
Afghanistan and questioning India's blind support to it. He was
promptly arrested and remained behind bars for the last five months
and denied even bail, although even the former chief justice of
India, Justice Ahmadi said that Asif has committed no crime under
the Indian laws. Asif's campaign was carried out by his wife Fehmina
and his eight-year-old year daughter Areeba.
Notwithstanding
the fact that it was a local election, the defeat may have serious
repercussions for the BJP and its government at the center.
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