AAP Creates History - Wins Delhi 67 out of 70

Historic. Yes, history has taken a decisive turn. The Delhi elections are finally over and the results are out. Many myths have been busted. The leader often described as most popular and most powerful has been humbled. The aura of invincibility is broken. The impossible has been achieved. The Aam Aadmi Party has won. The BJP has lost. If we had predicted something like this a few months ago, people would have laughed at us and called us a bunch of loonies. I still remember how just some weeks after the parliamentary elections, people in Arvind Kejriwal's constituency shut doors on his face. He once told me how a local guard, seeing him walk by, had commented sarcastically about wanting to be the PM. His reference was to Arvind going to Varanasi to contest against Modi, then the darling of the masses. The last Parliamentary elections were the worst thing that could have happened to any party or leader other than the BJP! AAP had lost all the seven seats in its pocket burrough of Delhi. It had contested more than 400 seats and its candidates had lost their deposits in almost 90% of the seats. The Party was ridiculed as zamaanat zapt party (the party which has lost its deposits). Arvind Kejriwal was ridiculed no end. He was badly bruised. Experts had written his obituary. AAP as a party was declared dead despite improving its vote share in Delhi by 4% and winning four seats in Punjab. We all were down. We knew elections in Delhi were due and could be announced any moment. We had to pull ourselves together and above all, we all had to believe that though we had lost the battle, the war was still on. For the first time, I saw Arvind shaky and vulnerable. He was not the same person. He seemed tentative. But like a General, he slowly gathered himself and decided to face the miseries of life with courage and made plans on 'how it could be done'. For us, it was a do-or-die situation. Victory was the only alternative. A plan was chalked out. We identified our negatives and listed three major ones: