New Delhi: The losers were once winners, but failed to keep in touch with the reality. The reality in politics is the people who elected them. The reality is the hopes and aspirations of the people, whom they failed to connect with. But the dangerous reality is their mood swing that turned the winners into losers. Yesterday’s stars but biting the dust today.
The most distinguished loser of this election is Arvind Kejriwal, the most admired leader-turned the most heckled one. Some Delhiites even thought he would be the next prime minister. But India is not Delhi, and what succeeds in Delhi need not succeed in the rest of India. Arvind thought he would have a cakewalk wherever he goes or contests from; but the people taught him the lesson he need to learn before embarking on the rough and tumble of politics.
Rajmohan Gandhi, a distinguished author and intellectual, and the grandson of the father of the nation, he is a political lightweight, dismissed by his opponent. Â
Best of friends from the legal fraternity, Kapil Sibal and Arun Jaitley, both lost. Indeed distinguished men they were; but the voters have no such great respect for the species of distinguished men. They could prefer Pappu Yadav to Sharad Yadav, telling the story of democracy.
The names of Meira Kumar, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ajay Maken, Naveen Jindal, Praful Patel, Sachin Pilot, Girija Vyas, Priya Dutt ring bells in our ears, and we almost thought they could never lose an election. But they did this time.  Â
Jaswant Singh, Ajit Singh, Smriti Irani, Sandeep Dikshit and K Balakrishnan lost because of circumstances beyond their control. But let’s respect the mandate of the people!