The voters of Delhi haven’t quite picked a winner to form the next Government in the national capital but they have chosen the loser, decisively. The three-time incumbent Sheila Dixit-led Congress has emerged a distant third to the BJP and AAP in Delhi’s three corned contest. The once popular Chief Minister is locked in a close battle to retain her own assembly seat against AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal.
If Delhi delivers a hung assembly (BJP-30, AAP-25, Cong-14), there may well be another election in six months, to coincide with the General Election, especially if the AAP sticks to its stand of not forming any alliance with either of the two national parties. Can the BJP get home with the support of ‘others’? Or could we have the tantalizing possibility of AAP forming a Government with the outside support of Congress?
That looks like the Congress Party’s best bet of denying BJP and Narendra Modi a 4-0 outcome in this round of elections. But will Kejriwal bite the bullet? He may want to consider it because another election that coincides with the General Election may help the BJP, if Narendra Modi remains the most popular choice of Delhiites for Prime Minister.
The post poll survey suggested that almost 50 percent of voters who supported AAP in the assembly election said they would switch to BJP in the General Election. Also, the AAP MLAs may not have a similar commitment to idealism that Kejriwal has. Meanwhile, Sheila Dixit looks set to fade into political oblivion.
She can point a finger at the pathetic UPA-run Central Government, also housed in Delhi. But she must also look within. Her third term in office has mirrored the UPA’s second term. Both were re-elected with high hopes but quickly descended into a morass of corruption and incompetence.
The Commonwealth Games fiasco triggered Dixit’s decline. Her insensitive responses to the deteriorating law and order situation for women in Delhi – which peaked with the December 16 gangrape -- lost her many of the faithful.
The cascading prices of onion – which ironically brought her to power in 1998 --- were the final nail. It’s over to either Harsh Vardhan (probable CM with the support of ‘Others’) or Arvind Kejriwal (probably the leader of opposition) to lead Delhi for the next five years.
The Congress, relegated to third place, faces the prospect of a longtime away from power or complete extinction, like in UP and Bihar.
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