Aam Aadmi Party has lost in Delhi and BJP has won by a huge margin after 27 years. In the elections held for the 70-member assembly, BJP got 48 seats, AAP got 22 seats and Congress had to be content with zero like last time. But Congress candidates have increased the party’s vote share and eroded the votes of Aam Aadmi Party. AAP convener Kejriwal and many other big leaders of the ruling party including former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj lost the elections. However, Chief Minister Atishi Marlena has won from the Kalkaji assembly seat.
According to the data received from the Election Commission, Arvind Kejriwal had to face defeat from the New Delhi assembly constituency by a margin of 4,089 votes. He was defeated by BJP’s Parvesh Verma. Former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was defeated by BJP’s Talwinder Singh Marwah by a margin of 675 votes. Another big AAP leader, Saurabh Bhardwaj, was defeated by BJP’s Shikha Rai from Greater Kailash by 3,188 votes. However, AAP leaders Gopal Rai, Mukesh Ahlawat and Imran Hussain managed to retain their seats. Former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain faced defeat at the hands of BJP’s Karnail Singh while former minister Somnath Bharti failed to retain the Malviya Nagar seat. The winning candidates from BJP include Mohan Singh Bisht, Kapil Mishra, Rekha Gupta, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Tilak Ram Gupta, Umang Bajaj and Chandan Singh Chaudhary while Virender Singh Qadian, Kuldeep Kumar, Sahi Ram, Jarnail Singh have registered victories from AAP.
Five Sikh candidates win
A total of five Sikh candidates have won from BJP and AAP in the Delhi assembly elections. BJP’s Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Manjinder Singh Sirsa from Rajouri Garden and Tarvinder Singh Marwah from Jangpura have won, while AAP’s Jarnail Singh has won from Tilak Nagar and Punardeep Singh Sahni from Chandni Chowk. Sources say that BJP can make a Sikh face the Chief Minister or Deputy Minister of Delhi so that it can influence Punjab and win the 2027 elections.
Why did AAP lose, why is Congress happy?
The results of the Delhi Assembly elections are different in many respects. In this case, it is clear that BJP has won all 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in 2014, 2019 and 2024. In 2024, the Congress-AAP alliance could not snatch a single seat from BJP.
Thus, it can be said that the upper and middle income groups of Delhi and the migrant upper castes of Hindi speaking states, as long as they found the AAP party and Kejriwal close to the RSS-BJP agenda and Hindutva ideology, kept giving them victory. Whenever Kejriwal and his party raised their voice against the BJP government, they were shown their place.
Compared to the 2020 assembly elections, the vote percentage of ‘AAP’ has decreased by about 10 percent. The party’s defeat, the loss of top leaders and the decline in vote percentage are questions on the policy and leadership of the AAP party. While the BJP’s votes have increased by about 9 percent, the Congress’s votes have also increased by 2 percent.
The honor of the AAP party was saved by the Dalit and Muslim voters. If the Dalit and Muslim voters had also been influenced by the election campaign and moved towards the Congress, then the AAP would not have been anywhere. AAP has won 8 out of 12 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes in the capital. Similarly, AAP has won 8 out of 11 minority seats. AAP has faced a crushing defeat in the affluent colonies and middle class areas of Delhi. Like Jangpura and New Delhi assembly seats. Thus, it can be said that the upper and middle class of Delhi were with the BJP only in the Lok Sabha and now they have gone with the BJP in the assembly elections as well. If this trend continues in the coming days, AAP may lose the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as well.
There is happiness in the Congress camp after the increase in vote percentage in Delhi. Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that now we will form the government in Delhi in 2030. This means that the Congress will directly fight against the BJP in the next assembly elections.
The opposition camp believes that given the political stand taken by Kejriwal from time to time, it was said that AAP is the B team of BJP and was raised by the RSS-BJP to politically destroy the Congress. Whenever he got the opportunity, he kept singing the praises of the ruling party by joining hands with the ruling party. Except for Kejriwal’s ‘welfare state’ policies, his views on other burning issues of the current times are not much different from the BJP. He and his government remained silent during the Delhi riots.
Kejriwal brought a liquor policy in Delhi and tried to appease the youth of Delhi. Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena raised questions on the excise policy and demanded an investigation by central agencies. Then the Central Bureau of Investigation i.e. CBI registered a case of corruption and the ED i.e. Enforcement Directorate registered a case of money laundering. Kejriwal was arrested on March 21. Kejriwal’s arrest has deeply hurt the hearts of the people of Delhi. Because the same Kejriwal whom Delhi used to respect as an honest person, went to jail in a corruption case. Kejriwal remained in jail for more than 6 months. The BJP presented the ‘corrupt’ image of Kejriwal to the public with full force. This seriously damaged the credibility of Kejriwal and ‘AAP’. Due to this,
The people voted for the BJP in large numbers and gave it a landslide victory.
Kejriwal fought on the streets in the anti-corruption movement in 2012, faced water cannons and raised his voice against government corruption. In response, when Kejriwal got the Delhi chair, he changed his image over time. The same Kejriwal used to call himself an Aam Aadmi and had declared that he would never use a government residence or a car. The same Kejriwal was accused of converting his government bungalow into Sheesh Mahal. The BJP exposed the expenditure of Rs 45 crore made to make the government residence shiny and luxurious. This had a significant impact on the people of Delhi. It had a negative impact on the voting and results for the AAP. In December 2024, Kejriwal was accused of installing marble granite, lighting in his government bungalow for Rs 1.9 crore and getting a gym and spa worth Rs 35 lakh. The BJP had also released a video of it.
Kejriwal had made a big promise to clean the Yamuna after winning the last election in 2020 and had put the previous BJP and Congress governments on the dock on the Yamuna issue. But the Yamuna has not been cleaned even today. After being surrounded on the Yamuna issue, Kejriwal argued in his defense that due to Covid, the work of cleaning the Yamuna could not be done for two years. Then he said that he and his party leaders are in jail and therefore cannot pay attention to the Yamuna. The people of Delhi did not accept this argument.
Just before the assembly elections, about 8 big leaders of the AAP party left the party. Even before this, the party had broken up and AAP leaders had joined the BJP. Kailash Gehlot’s name is also included in these. While Rajinderpal Gautam joined hands with the Congress.
The BJP managed the elections strongly, due to which AAP could not resist. Prime Minister Modi himself, along with star campaigners, took charge of the campaign. In addition, the BJP deployed its entire machinery, including all its ministers, the Chief Minister and star campaigners. AAP mostly reposed faith in old leaders. While the BJP gave a chance to a large number of new faces.
