Congress' 'sudden disappearance' led to BJP's defeat in Delhi polls, claims Union minister Prakash Javadekar

Pune: Union minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday said the "sudden disappearance" of the Congress was responsible for the BJP's defeat in Delhi Assembly polls as it led to a direct fight between his party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP swept the Delhi Assembly polls by winning 62 of the total 70 seats.

File image of Prakash Javadekar. PTI

While the BJP won eight seats, the Congress failed to open its account for the second consecutive election. "The (BJP's) defeat in Delhi elections was because of the sudden disappearance of the Congress. It is a different subject whether the Congress disappeared (on its own), people made it disappear or whether their votes got transferred (to AAP)," Javadekar said in a press conference.

He said the Congress, which had got 26 percent votes in Lok Sabha elections, could win only four percent votes in Delhi elections. "Because of Congress's disappearance, there was a direct fight between the BJP and the AAP. We had expected 42 percent votes for us and 48 percent for AAP, but our prediction failed by three percent each. We (BJP) got 39 percent votes, while the AAP received 51 percent votes," he said.

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The minister said that ups and downs were bound to happen in elections. "But the BJP does an analysis of all these things," he added. When asked about his remarks, in which he had described Kejriwal as a "terrorist", he said he had never made this kind of statement.

Earlier this month, Javadekar had said that Kejriwal had called himself an "anarchist" and there is not much of a "difference between an anarchist and a terrorist". Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that hate speeches like 'goli maro' and 'Indo-Pak match' made by BJP leaders during the Delhi Assembly election campaign may have resulted in the party's defeat.

When asked about Shah's remarks, Javadekar said his observations are important. "But there are other reasons for the defeat and the review will be done," he said. "Ours is a party that keeps learning. We learn from our victories and defeats. So an analysis of the defeat will be done at the party level," Javadekar said.