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Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday conceded his party's defeat in the high-stakes Delhi Assembly elections.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Atishi also accepted the people's mandate, calling it a 'setback' but vowing to continue the party's struggle against the Bharatiya Janata Party.
AAP is heading towards a big defeat in the 70-member assembly with the BJP leading on 47 seats, leaving AAP to just 23 seats.
AAP supremo Kejriwal and his number two Manish Sisodia have lost to BJP's Parvesh Verma and Tarvinder Singh Marwah, respectively.
In a video message, AAP supremo said, "We accept people's mandate with humility and I congratulate the BJP for its victory and also hope that it will fulfil the expectations of the people of Delhi."
Reflecting on the work done by AAP in the past decade, Kejriwal said, "We have done a lot of work in education, water, electricity, infrastructure to provide relief to Delhiites."
Kejriwal said that AAP will play the role of a constructive opposition, saying, "In the next five years, AAP will not only play the role of a constructive opposition, but will also be available to the people of Delhi."
"We are not in politics for power, instead we consider it as a medium to serve people," Kejriwal claimed in the video message.
In the end, the AAP chief thanked all his party workers. "I thank all AAP workers for their hardwork during the elections and we fought a good election."
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters, Atishi declared that she has won the Kalkaji assembly seat, defeating BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri. However, the official figures on the Election Commission website still show her leading by over 3,500 votes after 12 rounds of counting.
"First of all, I thank the people of Delhi and our party workers who stood strong. We accept the mandate. The war against BJP's dictatorship and hooliganism will continue. This is a setback but AAP's fight for the people of Delhi and the country will go on," Atishi said.
Expressing gratitude to her supporters, the AAP leader said, "I thank the people who trusted me. I also thank my team, which faced all challenges and took our message to the public. I have won my seat but this is not a time for celebration -- this is the time to fight. The battle against BJP's authoritarianism will continue."
Stating that AAP has always fought against injustice and will continue to do so, Atishi said, "Yes, this may be one step back, but AAP will keep fighting."