AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal accused the BJP of 'hijacking and murdering democracy' after its wins in West Bengal and Assam. He alleged that the BJP uses tactics like voter deletions to win, citing his own defeat in the 2025 Delhi Assembly election.
Aam Aadmi Party National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of "hijacking and murdering democracy," raising an alarm over the latter's decisive win in West Bengal and Assam. Reflecting on his defeat in the 2025 Delhi Assembly election, the AAP supremo accused the BJP of using tactics like voter deletions to weaken their opponents. He alleged that the same process has also been employed in West Bengal this time.
'Democracy is in Crisis'
Addressing AAP Punjab MLAs in New Delhi, Kejriwal said, "The way the Bharatiya Janata Party has hijacked and murdered democracy...For the past three or four months, we've been watching the chaos unfold in Bengal. They did the same in Bihar, Maharashtra."
"In my own assembly (New Delhi Assembly Constituency), before I went to jail, there were 1,48,000 votes. When I returned, there were 1,06,000 votes left. They got 42,000 votes cut within six months. I won by 30,000 votes last time. 42,000 votes were cancelled. I lost by 3,000 votes. How can you win? When you cancel all the votes, nothing will be left. This same chaos is going on throughout the country. Today, democracy is in crisis," the former Delhi CM added.
BJP's Historic Wins in West Bengal, Assam
BJP won 206 seats in West Bengal, recording a historic win in the state, outperforming its 77-seat tally in the 2021 Assembly elections. Trinamool Congress, which swept the last assembly poll by winning 212 seats, finished a distant second with 80 seats.
In Assam, NDA scored a spectacular victory, winning a three-fourths majority. BJP scored a two-thirds majority on its own in the northeastern state, winning 206 seats. BJP's allies, Bodoland Peoples Front and Asom Gana Parishad, won 10 seats each Congress has won 15 seats. All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) won one seat, and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) won two seats.
In a setback for Congress, party leader Gaurav Gogoi lost the Jorhat constituency to BJP's Hitendra Nath Goswami by a margin of 23,182 votes. (ANI)
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)