India's ruling party suffers defeat in Delhi polls

NEW DELHI

India’s ruling party lost a key state election on Tuesday, in its first electoral test since anti-government protests erupted last December.

New Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) clinched 62 of the 70 assembly seats in Delhi, according to unofficial results from the Election Commission of India.

It is a major defeat for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which could only secure seven seats in the provincial legislature. In the last year's general elections, however, it had managed to claim all the seven parliamentary seats from the country's capital.

The official results from the election commission still awaited, however, the latest figures showed that AAP has won 54 seats and is leading in 8 while the ruling BJP won 7 seats and leading in 1.

The main opposition Indian National Congress party, which ruled Delhi for 15 years before being voted out in 2013, meanwhile, drew a blank.

In the 2015 assembly election, AAP had won 67 of the 70 seats. The BJP secured 3 seats, while the Congress did not win any.

After the victory, Kejriwal is all set to return as the provincial chief for a third term. Speaking to a crowd in front of his party office, Kejriwal said: "This is not my personal victory, this is the victory of Delhiites. This the victory of the people who consider me as their son and voted for us."

Modi in a tweet congratulated Kejriwal and his party for the victory, "wishing them the very best in fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Delhi."

As results showed his party leading in the state assembly elections, workers and supporters could be seen celebrating their success on the streets. They distributed sweets and danced outside party headquarters in the Indian capital.

While Kejriwal's campaign focused on development including health and education, the BJP mainly censured the anti-citizenship law protesters, accusing them of "sedition".

The new law guarantees Indian citizenship to non-Muslim religious minorities escaping persecution in three neighboring countries -- Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Activists and opposition politicians have described the new law as divisive, discriminatory and against Muslims as well as the country's secular constitution.

Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister of Delhi and candidate from Patparganj constituency said: “The BJP tried to do politics of hate but the people of Delhi chose a government that works for the people.”

Sanjay Kumar, director of the Center for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) which researches voting patterns, said that the people had voted for development. “The victory has proved that the people have once against shown faith in the policies of Arvind Kejriwal. They have rejected other issues raised by the BJP,” he added.

Muslims, which comprise 13% of Delhi’s total 13.3 million voters, voted en masse for AAP candidates in majority of the seats. All five of its Muslim candidates from Ballimaran, Matia Mahal, Mustafabad, Okhla and Seelampur constituencies remained successful.