Delhi 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.

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Such was the discontent against the 10-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 one-sided affair in favour of the BJP.

The PM addressed a series of rallies in the national capital, dubbing AAP as AAP-da (disaster) and slamming it for 10 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 morale-booster for the BJP-led NDA ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections later this year.