[The performance of the three leading parties in 2013, 2014 (LS poll) and 2015, in terms of vote share followed by number of seats, is as follows. BJP - 33.07% 46.4% 32.1% AAP - 29.49% 32.9% 54.3% INC - 24.55% 15.1% 09.8%
BJP - 31 60 (leads) 03 AAP - 28 10 (leads) 67 INC - 08 00 (lead) 00 t clearly shows up how the BJP's electoral support in Delhi has nosedived - a drop of 14.3% points, between last April and now. The congress support has, over the same period, dipped 5.3% points. The AAP support has gone up by 21.4% points - rather mind-boggling. (source: <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/elections/delhi-elections-2015/top-stories/Delhi-elections-2015-Huge-loss-in-seats-but-BJPs-vote-share-almost-intact/articleshow/46186474.cms> and <http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31804&articlexml=Number-games-Who-will-come-out-swinging-07022015013044>.)] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/11402191/Was-Indias-most-powerful-prime-minister-in-30-years-unravelled-over-price-of-a-pinstripe-jacket.html Was India's most powerful prime minister in 30 years unravelled over price of a pinstripe jacket? Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffers humiliating landslide defeat in Delhi state elections, with suggestions Mr Modi's jacket pinstriped with gold lines of his name affected voters Narendra Modi's suit had been woven to order in London and tailored in India for 1,000,000 rupees - around £10,000 Photo: (AP) By Dean Nelson, New Delhi8:20AM GMT 10 Feb 2015 Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have suffered a humiliating landslide defeat in the Delhi state elections where the anti-corruption Aam Admi (Common Man) Party was swept to power. The party won with 67 of 70 seats while the BJP was cut down from 32 to just three seats. The Congress Party failed to win a single constituency. Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Admi Party's charismatic leader, described the result as a "people's victory" and said his top priority was "ending bribery" in the capital where corruption is widespread. Until the scale of Mr Kejriwal's victory emerged on Tuesday morning, Mr Modi had seemed invincible. Only last May he became the first Indian leader to win a single party majority since Rajiv Gandhi's sweeping Congress victory following the assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi. Since then the 'Modi wave' has gathered in strength, capturing state legislatures - where much of India's real power lies - including Maharashtra and Haryana. His personal popularity even ousted a Congress ally from power in Jammu and Kashmir. But just as he seemed unassailable and heading to yet another state election victory in Delhi, the emperor donned new clothes which cast him in an entirely different and unflattering light. His choice of a dark Bandhgala Nehru jacket pinstriped with gold lines of his own full name suddenly traded his carefully crafted image from selfless leader who had sacrificed his personal life for India's betterment for self-aggrandising and insecure megalomaniac who needs the reassurance of his own name woven into his fabric. The former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was another notable fan of the personalised pinstripe. The claim that the fabric had been woven to order in London and tailored in India for 1,000,000 rupees - around £10,000 - or more than ten years' wages for many of those who voted for Mr Modi in the hope of a higher standard of living - left him a little more frayed at the seams. Even Rahul Gandhi, the Congress Party's slow-motion leader, belittled his "ten lakh ka (million rupee) suit". Chetan Bhagat, one of India's most popular writers, said on Tuesday: "The suit has not gone down well." The suit, worth around £10,000, led to criticism of the Indian prime minister The fact that he was humiliated in the capital by Arvind Kejriwal's unruly Aam Admi Party, which had grown out of India's anti-corruption movement, highlights how far mighty Mr Modi has fallen in the capital's estimation and marks out the limits of his hubris in a thicker tailor's chalk altogether. The Aam Admi Party won fewer seats than the BJP in Delhi's hung assembly but formed a government which soon slid into the kind of "anarchy" Mr Kejriwal, then chief minister, had said he believed in. Despite pledges to tackle corruption, its ministers took the law into their own hands, leading vigilante groups to intimidate African immigrants it falsely accused of being drug dealers and prostitutes. One African woman was punched in the face and forced to take a urine test in the street in an apparently racist assault. Despite the test proving negative, Mr Kejriwal continued to support his law minister. As confidence in his ability to govern slumped, India's president Pranab Mukherjee warned him that "populist anarchy cannot be a substitute for governance." Mr Kejriwal resigned after 48 day tumultuous days as chief when rival parties failed to support his plans for an anti-corruption watchdog. Delhi's voters have decided to forgive Mr Kejriwal and have favoured his humility over Mr Modi's strength, flamboyance and reputation for religious intolerance - there have been a number of attacks on churches in the last few months which have unnerved Delhi's more liberal voters. Barack Obama and Narendra Modi during the former's visit to India in January Vir Sanghvi, a leading commentator, said the result was an historic one for India: "We are fortunate to see history in the making. This result is a defining moment for Indian politics." Those supporters who had assumed the scale of his landslide last summer had guaranteed Mr Modi two terms in government may now have to revise their calculations. In any event it certainly marks a change of fashion. Narendra Modi's trademark pastel linen short sleeve kurta shorts with Punjabi waistcoats are out, and Mr Kejriwal's modest 'muffler man' style of poly-wool sleeveless jumper and tight headscarf is in. The personal pinstripe of hubris has met its nemesis in Mr Kejriwal's rickshaw wallah chic and Delhi's liberal intelligentsia is now hoping the trend will go national. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
