Accept people’s mandate with humility, congratulate BJP for its victory: Kejriwal after AAP’s loss

New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday conceded his party’s defeat in the high-stakes Delhi Assembly elections.

AAP is heading towards a big defeat in the 70-member assembly with the BJP leading on 47 seats, leaving AAP to just 23 seats.

AAP supremo Kejriwal and his number two Manish Sisodia are trailing BJP’s Parvesh Verma and Tarvinder Singh Marwah, respectively.

In a video message, AAP supremo said, “We accept people’s mandate with humility and I congratulate the BJP for its victory and also hope that it will fulfil the expectations of the people of Delhi.”

Reflecting on the work done by AAP in the past decade, Kejriwal said, “We have done a lot of work in education, water, electricity, infrastructure to provide relief to Delhiites.”

Kejriwal said that AAP will play the role of a constructive opposition, saying, “In the next five years, AAP will not only play the role of a constructive opposition, but will also be available to the people of Delhi.”

“We are not in politics for power, instead we consider it as a medium to serve people,” Kejriwal claimed in the video message.

In the end, the AAP chief thanked all his party workers. “I thank all AAP workers for their hardwork during the elections and we fought a good election.”

While AAP has dominated the political landscape in Delhi for the last 10 years, the BJP has been out of power in the city since 1998.

The Congress, which governed Delhi from 1998 to 2013 and was hoping for a resurgence, seemed headed for its third straight washout.