Even as the BJP has suffered its second straight drubbing in the Delhi Assembly polls, at least one leader from the party has apparently decided controversial utterances are par the course even in defeat.
Senior Haryana Minister Anil Vij on Tuesday tweeted, "Issues lost in Delhi elections, freebies won," in an apparent jibe at welfare schemes announced by the AAP government in Delhi in the past year.
Vij has been no stranger to provocative comments. Before voting in Delhi, Vij had alleged the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Shaheen Bagh were sponsored by AAP and the Congress jointly. He even alleged the protests at Jamia Millia Islamia and Shaheen Bagh showed a mentality similar to that which existed before Partition in 1947.
Kapil Mishra, the BJP candidate for Model Town constituency, was more subdued in his reaction. Mishra, a former AAP MLA and minister, told ANI, "I congratulate Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal for the excellent victory. BJP has lost the fifth state election in a row. It means we have somewhere failed to connect with the people of Delhi". Mishra is trailing from Model Town to an AAP candidate by about 10,000 votes. Mishra had been panned during the election campaign for leading a rally that called to "shoot those who are traitors".
BJP MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, who had been banned from campaigning in the Delhi elections twice for provocative utterances, was also subdued in his reaction. Verma told ANI, "I accept the result. We will work hard and give a better performance in the next elections." However, Verma did not hesitate to take potshots at Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who had been trailing in the early rounds of counting in his Patparganj seat.
Taking a jibe at Sisodia's work in the education sphere, Verma claimed, "If this election would have been on education and development, then Education Minister (Manish Sisodia) would not have been trailing".
BJP MP from Delhi Gautam Gambhir told ANI that the party "tried our best but, probably, we could not convince the people of the state".
