On a high after winning a Lok Sabha seat in the just-concluded polls, BJP leader and the Dalit face of the party, Udit Raj, is all for the Assembly elections in Delhi to be held as early as possible.
The MP from the North-West Delhi constituency believes that AAP’s “illusion” that the backward and middle classes would vote for them once more would be shattered in the next state elections.
“Assembly polls should be held at the earliest. This time, the myth will be broken that the backward classes are with them,” Raj told PTI in an interview.
“If AAP thinks that they will retain their vote-bank of middle and backward class voters in the next Assembly polls, they are wrong,” he said.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP had bagged nine of the 12 reserved seats in Delhi in the last Assembly elections as the fledgling outfit surprised all by notching up a tally of 28 MLAs in the 70-member House.
The party then went on to form the government in Delhi with outside support from Congress but relinquished power 49 days later over the Jan Lokpal Bill issue.
Thereafter, it failed to create the same hype ahead of the 2014 general elections and managed to win only four Lok Sabha seats.
“The Lok Sabha polls showed that not only Dalits, but people from all sections of the society have faith in BJP,” said Raj, who got the better of AAP’s Rakhi Birla in the North-West Delhi seat.
Charging Kejriwal with making flip-flops, Raj claimed that the AAP leader’s calculations had not fallen into place for the Lok Sabha polls and that was why he was frustrated. He is just trying to impress the masses again by showing that they are still fighters, remarked Raj.
As to BJP’s agenda for the Delhi elections, Raj said that “it would be on the same lines as that for the Lok Sabha polls, which is, for a stable government”.
He averred that AAP and Congress would be no match for BJP in the next Assembly elections, whenever they are held.
“AAP has already failed once and Congress is far behind to be thought of as a rival. BJP will get not less than 60 seats this time,” he claimed.
–PTI