As AAP crushes BJP in Delhi, Pawar revives call for unity of regional players

With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) looking set for another landslide win in the Delhi assembly polls by decimating its main rival BJP, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said the results marked the "mood of change" in the country, and expressed the need for regional parties in states to come together to keep the saffron party out of power.

As per the Election Commission website, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party has won 55 of the total 70 Assembly seats in Delhi and is leading in 7. The BJP has won seven seats and is leading in one while the Congress stared at blank.

Talking to reporters here, Pawar said the results of the Delhi elections indicated that "winds of change" were blowing in the country.

"Today's result is not limited to Delhi alone as people from various states live in the national capital. There is an environment of change in their own states which they expressed while voting in Delhi," the former Union minister said.

Pawar, who played a crucial role in bringing ideologically incompatible Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to form a government in his home state, said there is a "trend" of regional parties or the alternatives (to the BJP) becoming stronger in their respective states.

Underlining the need for regional parties to come together to keep the BJP out of power, Pawar cited the example of the Maharashtra alliance.

"Regional parties need to come together under a 'common minimum programme' and provide a stable government to keep the BJP out of power.

"In Kerala, there is Communist Party...in Maharashtra, we did some experiment. It means going forward, there is a need to come together on the basic common minimum programme, and I am sure people will support it," the veteran politician said.

Pawar also said that there was a feeling among Opposition parties that the BJP was like a "calamity" for the country, and there was a need to stand united.

"Last time we had come together in Kolkata and put forth our stand. Today, people have expectations from us and there is a need to go with a common minimum programme," he said.

Pawar was apparently referring to the rally of opposition parties hosted by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata in January 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The NCP supremo attributed the AAP's stellar performance in the Delhi polls to the common people rejecting the BJP's "communal polarisation" agenda.