With 7 LS seats in bag\, BJP eyes Delhi Assembly

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With 7 LS seats in bag, BJP eyes Delhi Assembly

BJP workers celebrate their victory in the Lok Sabha election near the party headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday. R. V. Moorthy

BJP workers celebrate their victory in the Lok Sabha election near the party headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday. R. V. Moorthy   | Photo Credit: R_V_Moorthy

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Party to pitch narrative of ‘common party in Delhi and at Centre’; Congress voters would join us in Assembly polls: AAP MLA

After retaining all seven parliamentary seats in the city, the BJP has set its sights on 70 more that constitute the Delhi Legislative Assembly.

Party insiders said they had been instructed to focus on the Aam Aadmi Party’s support base across the Capital’s slums and unauthorised colonies. In addition to “utilising the momentum” of the win, the party would also seek to cement its booth-level management at the 12 reserved Assembly constituencies in Delhi, said sources.

To counter AAP’s statehood plank, the BJP said it would pitch the narrative of a “common party in Delhi and at the Centre” over the coming seven months. “Delhi can be developed faster and in a better way if there is a common [BJP] government both at the Centre and in the State. AAP’s negative politics will also be one of the issues, which the party will seek to counter on the basis of seamless development,” said Union Minister Vijay Goel. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said AAP was now a “distant third in Delhi” after being rejected by the people yet again, pointing at the party’s dismal performance in the 2017 civic body elections.

“The people of Delhi have rejected the politics of lies. The pessimistic politics done by the negative-minded leaders of Delhi has been rejected by the voters. Just like the Lok Sabha election, in the forthcoming Assembly elections, the people of Delhi are determined to form a strong government of the BJP for the city’s development,” he said.

AAP, while conceding that the BJP’s sweep of the seven Lok Sabha seats was due to a nationwide “Modi wave”, maintained that the Assembly elections were a different ballgame altogether.

“People vote for different issues in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. In Delhi, the AAP government has worked for the people... Hope that the Assembly elections would be fought over these issues,” AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said. AAP MLA Somnath Bharti said the results were “not extremely worrying” and the party would win the Assembly polls. “The votes which went to the Congress would come back to AAP,” he added.

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