The Delhi civic body polls went off with a bang. It showed great political engagement of the people of Delhi. Local issues like worsening sanitation and growing corruption were relegated to the background. National issues came into focus and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the forefront of the election campaign. The BJP won decisively in three corporations though it had not fared well in the past in two of them. The sweeping success of the BJP was indeed a sequel to the triumph in the UP assembly elections. It is also a warning to the maverick political leader, Arvind Kejriwal. The Aam Aadmi Party had lost out in Punjab and Goa and also now in Delhi municipal elections though the area has been its stronghold for a number of years.
The AAP came into the limelight owing to three factors- the Anna movement, the struggle against a scandal–riddled Centre and the pervading miasma of corruption. Later it added its demand for decentralization and the bijli-pani-sarak issues. In 2015, it captured 67 seats in the Delhi assembly. But the AAP now seems to be in a whining mood, focusing on what it complains to be an antagonistic and interfering Centre. Maybe, many of its complaints against the Centre are justified. But its bid to spread its wings to regions outside Delhi has boomeranged. Delhi municipal polls have repeated the party’s failures in Punjab and Goa.
It may be argued that the AAP is not wiped out just yet. It can still offer a success story ruling the Delhi assembly. It will not do for the party to put the blame for every failure on the EVM.