India

Sports Minister Vijay Goel calls AAP, Congress Myopic and Directionless in Wake of MCD Exit Polls

Sports Minister Vijay Goel calls AAP, Congress Myopic and Directionless in Wake of MCD Exit Polls

Minster of Youth Affairs and Sports Vijay Goel termed both opponents of the BJP in the Municipal Corportation of Delhi (MCD) elections, held yesterday, the AAP and the Congress as lacking foresight and leadership. The comments come in the wake of exit polls showing BJP poised to win yet another key election decisively. Stating that the BJP would win over 200 seats in the MCD elections, he expressed the oft-repeated view that this was a vote on the performance of the Delhi Government, led by maverick AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, and if the verdict is what the exit polls show, the AAP chief should resign on moral grounds. Stating the AAP government had failed to deliver on promises of rooting out corruption with the growing list of scandals against AAP ministers, Goel said that the BJP was winning because the people of Delhi believed in the vision for the country set out by PM Narendra Modi. He also added that the BJP had introduced a host of new faces in these elections to advance Modi’s development agenda, and it was this that the people of Delhi seem to have embraced wholeheartedly.

The results of the MCD elections will only come out on Wednesday. But if what the exit polls predict is true, the writing is quite on the wall for Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, which had routed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP in the Delhi assembly elections two years ago.
Goel’s comments reflect strongly on Kejriwal, who was positioning himself as a challenger to Modi by taking him on directly in public discourse, will have to ask himself some uncomfortable questions about how a city he has mesmerised in 2015 is so decisively swinging away from him and his anti-politics plank. The going has gotten worse for Kejriwal in recent times, with disappointing Goa and Punjab poll performances, and the recent controversy over the safety of EVMs in elections have only made matters worse. Kejriwal alleges a massive hacking of EVMs denied him a win in Punjab, much to the chagrin of EC and other parties.

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Shruti Bhatt

Shruti Bhatt is an engineering graduate, consumed with her passions day in and day out. An avid moviemaniac, a foodie, a bibliophile, and coffee-fashion-music enthusiast, Ms. Bhatt is on the way of becoming a raconteur - the word she is most fascinated with.