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Our Bureau For Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, sustaining one more year in power by keeping a more powerful BJP at bay is going to be a Himalayan task. His failure to stitch an alliance with the Congress cost him dear — it could retain just one seat out of the four it had won in 2014. Bhagwant Mann is going to be the lone AAP MP in the 17th Lok Sabha.
The defeat is likely to weaken the grip of Kejriwal on the party he built. A number of party leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, had been keen on an alliance with the Congress. But indecision at the top level resulted in a triangular fight in Delhi and Haryana, helping the BJP win all the seats with huge margins.
Though he worked in tandem with the Opposition, Kejriwal could not be part of a joint platform against the BJP. The BJP termed the AAP ‘anarchic’ and repeatedly accused the Delhi government of using the lack of full statehood to not get any significant work accomplished. The dearth of a proper narrative against the BJP’s plank will create hurdles for AAP in the upcoming Assembly polls, too.
In Punjab, the Congress effectively split the AAP into many groups. Mann won the Sangrur seat due to what he had delivered for the constituency.
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