Washington, DC – The United States refused to comment on complete routing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) by the anti-corruption crusader Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Adami Party (AAP) in the recently concluded Delhi Assembly elections but reiterated its relationship with India is growing especially after the recent visit of President Barack Obama.
President Barack Obama’s visit to India was used by the BJP’s Kiran Bedi as part of her campaign to be elected as Chief Minister of Delhi. “Today, Obama has come and all of India is flying. Modi has done so much. Obama would not just have come like that,” said Bedi during an election meeting in the capital. She failed to win her own constituency while Modi’s BJP got just three seats. India’s main opposition Congress party failed to win a single constituency.
“That (Delhi election) is an internal matter for the people and the Government of India,” State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told journalists when “Indian American Times” raised the question about the Delhi results in which AAP won 67 of the 70 seats.
“As it relates to our relationship or partnership or the President’s visit we certainly see our relationship with India as one that is growing, that has great potential, and that is reflected by the fact that the Secretary (of State John Kerry) and the President (Barack Obama) of the United States both visited India within the first month of this year,” Psaki said. “So that speaks for itself, but I don’t have any particular comment or analysis on the election results,” she said at the daily State Department briefing on Tuesday.
“We don’t engage in endorsing individual political candidates, so I would refer you to the Government of India and the people of India,” Psaki said when asked about the victory of Kejriwal on an anti-corruption platform.
Kejriwal is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur (1989 batch – Nehru Hall)) and there were widespread celebrations on the campuses of these premier institutes as the students had helped three-year-old party to regain its own vote bank which it had lost to the BJP after the Kejriwal’s resignation from the Delhi’s chief minister post last year following a brief stint of 49 days. His daughter Harshita, a first year engineering student at IIT Delhi, helped mobilize a large number of students from IIT Delhi towards working for AAP.
The loss in the Delhi state elections is a huge defeat for Prime Minister Modi since he led his party to victory in the 2014 general election. Modi has enjoyed huge popularity since taking office last year, winning a string of local elections and wooing international investors and world leaders.