BJP not taking AAP challenge lightly

Prime Minister Narendra Modi might have kickstarted the Delhi Assembly election campaign on Saturday, but the BJP is not taking the direct contest with the Aam Aadmi Party lightly.

Party leaders privately accept that AAP has managed to gain ground lost since Arvind Kejriwal resigned from chief ministership last February, after 49 days in power. 

His core supporters among slums appear to be reposing faith again in the AAP and with the Congress still not able to regroup after a resounding defeat in Lok Sabha elections, the BJP will have to slog it out in the Assembly polls expected to take place in the first fortnight of the next month.

The BJP central leadership is also said to be unhappy with the Delhi unit not able to bus people to Ramlila Grounds for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally. The crowd was nowhere near half of one lakh people that rally managers had claimed prior to Saturday’s event.

The BJP has been out of power in the national capital for the past 16 years and the party leaders are not very confident that the trend of winning every election under Modi-Shah regime will sweep Delhi as well.

Modi in his speech too appealed to people to give a clear mandate and not like the December 2013 hung verdict. The BJP had emerged the single largest party in the last elections but was nowhere close to forming the government.