Yashwant Sinha sarcastically regarded the BJP's performance as "sterling".
Even as the BJP tried to make sense of its defeat in the Delhi elections, former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha hit out at the party with a well-aimed jibe at its polling numbers on Tuesday. "Congratulations to my old party. They have more than doubled their tally in the Delhi state assembly elections. Sterling performance," he said in a sarcastic tweet.
Technically, he wasn't wrong. The BJP and its allies notched eight seats in the just-concluded elections, over 100 per cent of their 2015 score of three. It's only when the party's performance is compared with that of Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party - its main electoral rival in the national capital - that things start looking disappointing.
AAP won 62 of the 70 seats in the assembly, recording their second landslide victory in Delhi over a period of five years. While the BJP had hinged its poll campaign on issues such as the Citizenship Amendment Act protests and Kashmir, the ruling party preferred to drum up awareness on its pro-people policies and efforts at developing Delhi.
The post earned 7,400 likes and was retweeted over a thousand times by Tuesday night. The comments that emerged under the tweet were just as hilarious. "It was said that in 2015, the 3 BJP MLAs can get on to a single bike and travel! Now maybe they'll need a couple of cars for their 7 MLAs!!" tweeted one of the users.
"Thodi si tho lift kara diya," said another, referring to an old Adnan Sami song.
Yashwant Sinha was a senior member of the BJP, even serving under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in the capacities of Finance and Foreign Minister from 1998 to 2004, before he quit the party on April 21, 2018. Now a staunch critic of the Narendra Modi government, he has targeted it on various issues such as the slumping economy, the Citizenship Amendment Act and the clampdown on Jammu and Kashmir.
The Delhi defeat came as a big blow to the BJP, given how leaders such as Manoj Tiwari had predicted that the party will win more than 55 seats. Even as early trends showed the party heading for a collapse, he reached out to supporters with a message of hope. "There are several rounds of counting. I will tell our workers there is no need to be disheartened. We are in a good position," he said. "Anything can happen."
But when the die was finally cast, Manoj Tiwari had no choice but to concede defeat. "Thanks to all the voters of Delhi. Thank you to all the party workers for their hard work... We respect the mandate of the people. Arvind Kejriwal, congratulations to you," he tweeted in Hindi. "I hope the Delhi government will live up to the people's expectations."
However, this election did bring BJP something to cheer for. The party's vote percentage increased from 32 per cent in 2015 to 38 this time, giving Manoj Tiwari enough reason to claim that more people are punching the lotus button.