JOIN US A day after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the legislative polls in Delhi, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday added insult to the injury by saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah would have to accept the blame for the defeat.
“BJP leaders do not even need fingers to count the number of seats they won. Putting the blame of defeat on Kiran Bedi isn’t right. Why Delhi stood with the man (Arvind Kejriwal) who was denigrated as ‘bhagoda’ (deserter), why Modi’s magic couldn’t work even though he resides in Delhi nowadays?” said an editorial that appeared in Saamana, the Marathi broadsheet organ of the Shiv Sena and Dophar ka Saamana, its tabloid Hindi version.
“The ‘broom-wielding’ AAP has reduced it to a dirt,” it said in a strongly-worded editorial.
The editorial in the newspaper – whose editor is Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray comes a day after he targeted by Modi by saying that people of Delhi have shown that “tsunami is bigger than a wave”. "BJP leaders claim this is not Modi's defeat. (Arvind) Kejriwal has won – then who has lost? After all, the entire elections were carried out in Modi's name without the presence of any other BJP leader," the edit said.
"(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi now lives in Delhi, but his 'brahmastra' failed to work at such close quarters, even (BJP chief) Amit Shah's magic didn't work," the Sena said, in a direct attack on the Modi-Shah duo.
The editorial also pointed out that inviting United States President Barack Obama before the elections proved to be futile. Even the party workers were unhappy that an outsider leader like Kiran Bedi was thrust upon them and the electorate, besides the totally negative campaign against Kejriwal compounded the problems for the BJP.
“On the other hand, Kejriwal went around with folded hands and sought peoples' forgiveness for past mistakes – "I only quit the government. I did not become corrupt,", which the people accepted,” it said.