New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party, which received a humiliating defeat in the municipal elections on Wednesday, vociferously raked up the issue of EVM tampering one again with senior AAP minister Gopal Rai remarking that there was an “EVM wave” across the national capital. The party finished a distant second in the civic polls with 48 wards and 38 of its candidates losing their security deposits. However, unlike his party colleagues, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal refrained from raising the EVM tampering issue and congratulated the BJP on its victory in the municipal polls.
Ahead of the poll result, Mr Kejriwal had threatened to launch an agitation over alleged “manipulation” of EVMs. However, there was no word from him on the proposed agitation today.
“EVM tampering is the bitter truth of the country’s democracy. One can crack jokes on us initially. But fearing that we will be made fun of, we cannot refrain from speaking the truth,” deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said.
Meanwhile, AAP leader Dilip Pandey resigned as party’s Delhi unit convenor. Many AAP leaders, including party’s MP from Sangrur district Bhagwant Mann, held the party high command responsible for the defeat. After keeping mum for almost two months, he minced no words in slamming party leadership. “There is no use finding fault in EVMs now, the party leadership committed a historic blunder with regard to the overall strategy in the elections.,” he said.
With regard to his resignation, the AAP leader, who took over as the convenor of the Delhi unit in July 2014, tweeted, “I have resigned from the post of AAP Delhi Convenor, conveyed to National Convenor @ArvindKejriwal to give this responsibility to someone else.”
Many AAP leaders, including water minister Kapil Mishra, joined several AAP members in calling for introspection over the party’s rout in the MCD polls, saying the loss cannot be blamed only on EVMs even as the party leadership alleged “rigging” of voting machines.
“This is the time to introspect why we had to see this day after two years. Whether it a Modi wave or not, it has become clear that people have not voted for us. Today’s reality is we have got very few seats in comparison to the massive mandate we got in 2015. The results cannot be viewed only by blaming the EVMs,” Mr Mishra said. He also admitted that looking at poll results, a “BJP wave” exists in Delhi.
