NDA credits Modi for BJP win in Delhi; NC takes dig at Congress, says ‘aur lado aapas mein’

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut says BJP won as a lot of money was spent, workers of rival parties were targeted and voters list was tampered with in Delhi 'as was done in Maharashtra'

New Delhi: The BJP and its NDA partners on Saturday hailed the Delhi victory as an endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership while the Congress asserted that it was a referendum on AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and not Modi’s policies.

Internal bickering in the I.N.D.I.A bloc came to the fore with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah taking a jibe as both the Congress and AAP were defeated after contesting against each other. “Aur lado aapas mein!!! (Keep on fighting each other),” the NC leader said on X.

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I.N.D.I.A bloc constituents like Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP-SP were of the view that the BJP would not have won had Congress and AAP fought the election together and emphasised that a lesson should be learned from this.

The Congress, however, lashed out at those criticising it for contesting against the Aam Aadmi Party, saying they didn’t give “these lectures on opposition unity to AAP when the party went to Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, etc to fight elections and weaken anti-communal, secular vote”.

Congress media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said the “meltdown of a section of so-called liberals is completely bizarre” and said the Delhi election result is a “rejection of the Trojan horse that attempted to damage the liberal cause” across the country.

“Majority of liberals are rightly cheering the fall of the facade so that the real champion of liberal values – the Indian National Congress – can emerge stronger to take the BJP on and defeat it,” Khera said on X.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut alleged that the BJP won as a lot of money was spent, workers of rival parties were targeted and voters list was tampered with in Delhi “as was done in Maharashtra”.

He said a Congress-AAP alliance would have crushed the BJP in Delhi assembly polls. Reiterating his allegations of irregularities in the voters list in Maharashtra which saw the BJP-led Mahayuti combine winning big last November, Raut alleged that the “Maharashtra pattern” was implemented in Delhi polls.

“It would have been better had the ties between AAP and Congress been good. Both parties fought against the BJP separately. Had they contested jointly, the BJP’s defeat would have been certain. We should take lessons from this,” Raut told reporters.

NCP (SP) legislator Rohit Pawar said the I.N.D.I.A bloc parties could not overcome their egos, ultimately allowing the BJP to achieve an otherwise “impossible” victory in the Delhi assembly polls. Most of the top leaders of I.N.D.I.A bloc parties were silent on the Delhi poll verdict.

“Delhi’s matter remains in Delhi… we don’t have any comment on it. It will have no impact in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee will become the CM for the fourth time in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections… Our leadership is analysing what happened in Delhi but it will have no impact in Bengal,” TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said.