NEW DELHI: In what can be called as a shocking turn of events, not only did the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fail to dent the BJP juggernaut in Delhi, three of its candidates lost their deposits after failing to secure even one sixth of the total votes. AAP’s New Delhi candidate Brijesh Goyal, Dilip Pandey from North East Delhi, and first-timer Pankaj Gupta from Chandni Chowk lost their deposits. 
The AAP and Congress had spent several uneasy weeks ahead of the polls discussing and debating the possibility of an alliance with Congress. However, the deal never went through and the two parties decided to fight solo. The result, both parties were mowed down by the BJP. 

Accepting defeat in Delhi, CM Arvind Kejriwal congratulated the PM. “In Delhi, we put up very good candidates, campaigned very well and all the workers worked hard. We accept the public mandate...” tweeted Kejriwal. This outcome may have a direct impact on the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls in 2020. The AAP marched to victory with 67 of the 70 seats in 2015. However, with the turn of events in the recent months, it seems the voters in Delhi have rejected the politics of AAP, which kept blaming the Centre and PM Narendra Modi for not allowing them to work. 
Thursday’s results established that the Modi wave across the country swept Delhi as well, with the BJP retaining all 7 Lok Sabha seats in the National Capital. 

The Congress also failed to win a single constituency. “It is true that Delhi election results are not in favour of Congress. However, the people have made us reach second position on five Lok Sabha seats while we are at third in two constituencies. We will examine where we have failed to perform better in future,” Jitender Singh Kochar, spokesperson, Delhi Congress. 

In fact, the victory margin in every constituency was more than 2014 elections results and its vote share also increased from 46.40% in 2014 to about 56. 6%. It was 35% in 2009. BJP candidate in North West Delhi, Punjabi folk singer Hans Raj Hans emerged victorious with about 60.47% of total votes polled. Delhi BJP Spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “The country has got a new direction and people have laid the foundation of a new India.” 

The AAP contested 32 seats across the country, with 13 in Punjab, 7 in Delhi, three each in Haryana, Bihar and UP, two in Goa and one in Andaman. With just Bhagwant Mann winning the Sangrur seat, Delhi CM took to Twitter to congratulate his MP, “Congratulations to Bhagwant and the people of Sangrur...”

Biggies failed
Three-time chief minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit of Congress lost the battle for North East Delhi to BJP’s Manoj Tiwari. While former Delhi minister Arvinder Singh Lovely was floored by Gautam Gambhir in East Delhi