City witnesses paradigm shift in politics
Lok Sabha election outcome sets tone for Assembly elections
With the BJP making a clean sweep in the city and relegating the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress to a dismal second and third position, the poll outcome has set the tone for Assembly elections and marked a paradigm shift in the political landscape of the state.
Not only was the Congress blanked out from all the seven parliamentary constituencies, but has also been a distant third in all the 70 Assembly segments. The party’s vote share has come down by 11 per cent from 26 in 2009 to 15 per cent and its loss has directly helped the BJP, which has increased its vote share by an impressive 13 per cent from 33 per cent to 46.4. The AAP’s voting percentage too has increased from the last Assembly election held in December 2013 from 30 per cent to 33 per cent.
The Congress’ humiliating loss can directly be attributed to the fact that the Muslims and lower middle- class vote has seemingly shifted to the AAP. In the Assembly segments which have a large Muslims and slum or JJ cluster population, the AAP has bettered both the BJP and Congress.
Out of the 70 Assembly segments, the AAP has fared better than the BJP only in seven Vidhan Sabha segments, which has a large Muslim population, like Matia Mahal, Okhla, Seelampur, or JJ cluster or slum colonies like Seemapuri, Badli, and Kirari.
The BJP has seemingly taken away a large chunk of AAP’s middle and uppermiddle class vote as the debutante party has failed to match the saffron party surge even on segments like Lakshmi Nagar, Patparganj, Model Town, Sadar Bazar, Patel Nagar etc. where the Arvind Kejriwal- led party had registered landslide victories in the last Assembly poll. The BJP has also received good numbers in Jat- dominated segments.
The frittering away of the support among the middle and upper- middle classes may be attributed with AAP’s reactionary politics and a hasty exit from government. The party has however retained its votes in slums and resettlement areas and weaned away a part of the minority vote from the Congress.
Political pundits also said it was “too early to write off the party at the state level as it has already displaced Congress from the second place and is seen as the only competition to the BJP.” Some analysts also believe that the party had overestimated its clout in the state and virtually abandoned it, diverting its full strength to campaign in Varanasi against Narendra Modi.
The election results clearly indicate that people enmasse voted against the Congress.