Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Why did BJP delay Delhi elections?

As the near certain win of AAP has posed many questions to BJP strategists - the biggest of them seems to be - why did they delay Delhi elections? Everyone seems to suggest that they would have won the elections handsomely if they had held it just after Lok Sabha elections - but BJP would have had very strong reasons to believe otherwise.

I would make some guesses here : 

There was a huge support base for AAP in Delhi even after Lok Sabha debacle and no matter what BJP did - AAP would have made sure that assembly elections were fought on local issues rather than national ones. Also, AAP is a quick learner. They realized very soon that attacking Modi was not beneficial and they needed to project themselves as a party capable of ruling as opposed to one which could only resist.

AAP's preemptive strike( or bluffing?) - no matter what time of the day it was - if you asked AAP when to hold Delhi elections - they would say now. They showed no signs of weakness or timidity. That would have made BJP leaders jittery as they were constantly being shown as cowards by a courageous AAP leadership.

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