BJP's "Modi Will Need Another Lifetime" Jibe At Arvind Kejriwal

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by Arvind Kejriwal, faces a crushing defeat at the hands of the BJP in the Delhi Assembly elections. The outcome, widely seen as a referendum on Mr Kejriwal's governance, prompted BJP's Manoj Tiwari to recall Mr Kejriwal's bold 2023 declaration that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would need "another lifetime" to defeat him in Delhi. 

"Arvind Kejriwal ji, you have been defeated in this lifetime. You are not just losing to everyone, you no longer reside in people's hearts, there is hatred against you," Mr Tiwari told NDTV. 

Trends indicate the BJP has decisively crossed the majority mark in the 70-member Delhi Assembly. Adding to the sting of the defeat, Arvind Kejriwal has lost his own seat in the New Delhi constituency, a symbolic stronghold for AAP, to BJP's Parvesh Verma, a two-time MP from West Delhi who was strategically held back from contesting last year's Lok Sabha elections.

Mr Kejriwal finished around 1,200 votes behind Mr Verma, with Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit trailing in third place. 

"This is a victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guarantees. The people of Delhi do not like Arvind Kejriwal. The Modi government's welfare schemes worked," said Mr Tiwari. 

AAP won 28 seats in the 2013 Assembly elections, forming a short-lived 49-day government. In 2015, it secured an unprecedented 67 out of 70 seats, effectively wiping out the opposition. In the 2020 polls, AAP retained a strong majority with 62 seats, despite a BJP resurgence. This year, the BJP has flipped the script, pushing AAP to a distant second place.