YUNUS URGES PEOPLE TO STOP ATTACKS ON PROPERTIES OF HASINA’S FAMILY ‘AAP GOT TANGLED IN LIQUOR AND MONEY’ 09 FEBRUARY 2025 SECOND ODI: FOCUS ON ROHIT’S FORM & KOHLI’S AVAILABILITY www.thestatesman.com X.com/thestatesmanltd. Fb/thestatesman1875 PAGE 5 PAGE 9 PAGE 12 SINCE 1818 PAGES 12|` 5.00| KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR WEATHER Mainly clear sky. Maximum and Minimum Temperature most likely to be around 27˚ C and 15˚C respectively. BJP wave sweeps AAP away AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, former Dy CM Manish Sisodia & many of its top leaders lost in their own bastions RAINFALL: 0.0 mm RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 85% Min. 34% TEMPERATURE Max: 25.5˚C (-1.8) SUN RISES 06:13 hrs MOON RISES 13:32 hrs Min: 15.6˚C (-1.3) SUN SETS 17:29 hrs MOON SETS 02:39 hrs Full Moon on 12 February THUMBNAILS ASHOK TUTEJA NEW DELHI, 8 FEBRUARY Folk artists perform in a cultural procession during the 94th Annual Conference of Srimanta Shankardev Sangha, at Eraltoli Pathar, Mohbandha in Jorhat on Saturday. nANI BJP wrests Milkipur Assembly seat from SP after eight years: The ruling BJP has wrested the prestigious Milkipur (Reserved) Assembly seat in Ayodhya in the bypolls as its candidate Chandrabhan Paswan defeated his nearest SP candidate Ajeet Prasad by a record margin of 61,710 votes in a direct contest. The BJP candidate polled 1,46,397 votes against SP's 84,687 votes. The third contendor for the seat, Azad Samaj Party candidate, managed only 5,459 votes. BSP opted out of the contest while Cong had supported the SP candidate. D elhi has given its verdict for a 'double-engine government'. The BJP, cashing in on the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday dislodged the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from power in Delhi, thus staging a remarkable comeback in the national capital after being in political exile for 27 years. Such was the discontent against the ten-year uninterrupted rule of the AAP that its supremo Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and many of its top leaders lost in their own bastions, putting a big question mark over the future of the party which had caught the people’s imagination after its formation in November 2012 following a massive anti-corruption movement. The BJP's huge win in the national capital is a shot in the arm for PM Modi too, coming as it does after the saffron party's victories in Haryana and Maharashtra. The Modi magic, which appeared to be waning, after the Lok Sabha elections in May-June last year when the BJP failed to get majority on its own, has again worked wonders for the saffron party. That the BJP is fully dependent on ''Modi ki Guarantee'' was quite visible in the Delhi elections with the party not naming its chief ministerial candidate and projecting only the PM as its face. This made the electoral battle virtually a straight contest between PM Modi and Kejriwal. The race, therefore, has clearly turned out to be a onesided affair in favour of the BJP. The PM addressed a series of rallies in the national capital, dubbing AAP as AAP-da (disaster) and slam- INDIA bloc leaders blame rift between Cong & AAP for Delhi poll debacle PARWINDER SANDHU NEW DELHI, 8 FEBRUARY Leaders from across the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) coalition have pointed to the disunity between Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a key factor that contributed to the BJP’s victory in the Delhi AAP humbly accepts people’s mandate: Arvind Kejriwal AGRAJ PRATAP SINGH NEW DELHI, 8 FEBRUARY Accepting the people's mandate in the Delhi Assembly elections, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal congratulated the BJP on its victory, hoping it will meet people's expectations. The former Delhi chief minister, who lost the New Delhi Assembly seat to BJP’s Parvesh Verma, said his party accepts the people's veridict with humility. In a video message shared on social media platform X on Saturday, he said, “Delhi election results have come out today and we humbly accept the decision of the public." He assured people of Delhi that the AAP would take up the role of a constructive Opposition and reach out to the public extending every possible help to individuals and the society. "We will always be there for the people in their joys and sorrows of life, as we had not entered politics for the sake of power, rather we think of politics as a medium to serve the public and be present to help them," he added. Assembly elections. Several opposition figures believe that if Congress and AAP had formed an alliance, the outcome of the polls might have been different. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut was one of the first to voice this criticism, arguing that early trends in the election showed a tight contest. “Had Congress and AAP come together, the BJP’s defeat would have been assured within the first hour of counting,” Raut stated. He emphasised that both Congress and AAP shared a common goal of preventing BJP from coming to power, but by fighting separately, they weakened their chances. “If they had united, BJP’s defeat would have been a certainty,” he said. Meanwhile, Congress’ Jairam Ramesh reacted by attributing the election results to the failings of Arvind Kejriwal and AAP. Ramesh stated that while AAP had won in 2015 & 2020 despite PM Modi’s popularity, the recent results reflected a rejection of Kejriwal's “politics of deceit and exaggerated claims.” ming it for ten years of ''misgovernance''. Top BJP leaders, including President J P Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah, went all out against the AAP over the corruption issue, since Kejriwal had launched his party with the avowed commitment of providing a clean and honest government. The outcome of the elections clearly suggests that there was a strong undercurrent against the AAP even in some of the JJ clusters in the national capital due to its failure to deliver on its promises like providing clean water, checking air pollution and cleaning Yamuna. Also, the liquor policy scam and the 'Sheesh Mahal' of Kejriwal on which crores were allegedly spent led to the AAP's downfall. The party has given its worst-ever performance. Kejriwal apparently realised the tide was turning against his party in the midst of the election campaign as he made many populist announcements to woo his core voter, forcing the BJP to come out with its own 'freebies'. But more 'revdis' announced by Kejriwal distanced him further from the strong middle class segment in Delhi which had strongly supported the AAP in the two previous Assembly elections while continuing to back the saffron outfit in successive Lok Sabha polls. The income tax relief announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the General Budget was icing on the cake for the BJP to strengthen its bond with the middle class. The people of Delhi also rejected the AAP's politics of blaming others for its failures. Kejriwal's statement accusing the Haryana Government of poisoning the Yamuna water shocked even his die-hard supporters. The Congress, an alliance partner of the AAP in the INDIA bloc, again struggled in vain to regain its lost ground in the national capital. The party failed to open its account for the third consecutive time. However, it did cause immense damage to the AAP in many constituencies since the vote bank of the two constituents of the INDIA bloc is more or less. AAP leaders openly complained that even BJP leaders did not use the kind of language that was used by the Congress leadership against its leaders during the election campaign. There is obviously a big question mark over the unity and future of the INDIA bloc. Leaders of the Opposition bloc have gone on record to express their unhappiness with the Congress for not aligning with the AAP to take on the BJP. There is already a growing unease against the 'big brother' attitude of the Congress in the INDIA bloc with many top leaders of the bloc openly demanding that Mamata Banerjee be made its convener. The AAP's electoral defeat is a huge setback for the INDIA bloc and a moralebooster for the BJP-led NDA ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections later this year. We will make Yamuna the identity of Delhi city: PM Modi NIKHIL VYAS NEW DELHI, 8 FEBRUARY Thanking the people of the national capital for giving a massive mandate to the BJP in the Delhi Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the new BJP government will make Yamuna river the identity of Delhi city. “This love, this trust of the people of Delhi is a debt to all of us. Now the double engine government of Delhi will repay it by double and rapid development of Delhi,” the Prime Minister said. Mentioning cleaning of Yamuna river, Modi said, “I have pledged during the election campaign that we will make Yamuna the identity of Delhi city. I know this work is difficult and takes a long time. No matter how much time is spent, no matter how much energy is spent, we will do it.”