Arvind Kejriwal has been listening, hard, to all the criticism about his alleged high-handedness, and has acknowledged that the need of the hour for him is "action and not excuses".
In his tweet, the Delhi chief minister didn't once blame faulty voting machines, conspiracies, or other parties for his Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) humiliating losses in a string of elections.
"The reality is obvious. Yes, we made mistakes, but we will introspect and course correct...We owe that to voters and volunteers. We owe that to ourselves. Need is action and not excuses," the AAP chief wrote in the tweet he posted.
After the losses in the Delhi civic polls, and the Punjab and Goa Assembly polls, political pundits and many of his party members have put the blame squarely on Kejriwal himself. He's been accused of taking the electorate for granted, of shooting his mouth off when unnecessary, of losing focus and of contributing to a cult of personality that did no one any favours.
In his tweet, Kejriwal, acknowledging this is no time for excuses, said AAP needs to go back to first principles.
"Time to go back to drawing board. To not evolve would be silly", the Delhi chief minister said.
Two days ago, after the results of the Delhi civic polls vote were announced, Kejriwal and a few party members close to him blamed electronic voting machines (EVMs) for AAP's disastrous electoral performances. In fact, they had started blaming EVMs for "a possible loss" even before last Sunday's Delhi civic polls .
"We can't blame EVMs. They aren't the main issue. The main issue is mistrust," said Kumar Vishwas, an AAP member, whom Kejriwal has described as "being family". Vishwas said AAP "needs to introspect" as "the connect with voters was missing." Another party member also didn't hold back. The party's MP from Punjab Bhagwant Mann said it was wrong to blame the machines for AAP's defeat.
"Instead of finding faults with EVMs, it is time to start finding faults in the party," Mann said.
