AAP heads for landslide victory in Delhi elections

Halting the Narendra Modi juggernaut, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was on Tuesday headed for a landslide victory in the Delhi assembly elections in a sweep that pulverised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and decimated the Congress.

Trends in the poll results showed that the AAP was leading in 66 seats in the 70-member assembly with its nearest rival the BJP far behind at three seats. The Congress, which ruled the national capital for 15 years till December 2013, may not even open its account while the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) was ahead in one seat. In an election that was billed as a referendum on Prime Minister Modi but rejected by BJP as such, the AAP wave spearheaded by its chief Kejriwal knocked the two major parties and their veterans from their citadels. In all the assembly elections that followed the spectacular victory in the May 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP formed governments in Maharastra, Haryana, Jharkhand and emerged the second largest party in Jammu and Kashmir with highest vote share. (livemint)