BJP begins post-mortem of its defeat in Delhi, sources say it lost as contest became bipolar

The BJP increased its vote share in the Delhi Assembly polls but lost out to the AAP as the contest became "bipolar", party sources said after its top leaders conducted initial rounds of post-mortem of the party's drubbing.

The BJP's Delhi unit head Manoj Tiwari on Thursday met party president J P Nadda and its general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh for more than two hours at the party headquarters here.

According to the sources, it was felt by leaders in the meeting that the party had put up a spirited fight and as a result the vote share of it and its allies rose by 8 per cent, but it suffered drubbing as the election turned out to be a "bipolar contest" and the Congress, once a dominant player in Delhi, was nowhere in the picture.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party, led by Arvind Kejriwal, won 62 of the 70 assembly seats in Delhi, while the BJP bagged the remaining eight seats. The Congress, which had governed the national capital for 15 years before the AAP, failed to win a single seat.

The BJP's vote share, along with that of its allies, increased to nearly 40 per cent but it lost out to the AAP, whose vote share was at 53.5 per cent, almost same as last assembly polls.

The Congress could garner only 4.26 per cent vote compared to more than 9 per cent votes it had bagged in the 2015 election.

In the meeting it was felt that in future, the party should prepare itself for bipolar contest in the national capital.

Thursday's meeting came a day after Nadda met all general secretaries of the party and held a discussion for more than two hours with them on the same issue.

The BJP has planned a large number of meetings to analyse its performance constituency wise on Friday at its Delhi unit's office.

Separate meeting each will held with the party's losing candidates, in-charges of different regions in the national capital, parliamentarians, the Delhi unit's office-bearers and others.

A report will be prepared on the basis of these meetings by the BJP's Delhi unit which will be submitted to the central leadership.