The BJP on Saturday returned to power in Delhi after more than 26 years to sweep away the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party with a two-thirds majority on the back of a hyper localised campaign and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘AAP-da'(disaster) blitzkrieg.
Adding to the ignominy of the AAP that was battling 10 years of anti-incumbency was the shocking defeat of former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal himself and other top leaders including his close aide and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Somnath Bharti and Saurabh Bhardwaj. Chief Minister Atishi, an academic and unlikely politician, weathered the storm to retain Kalkaji seat.
The BJP won 48 of the 70 seats at stake and the AAP was way behind with 22, according to the Election Commission website. The elections were largely seen as a bipolar contest between the AAP, which made a determined bid for a fourth term, and the BJP. While the AAP had 62 members in the outgoing house, the saffron party had just eight legislators.
The Congress, which had ruled for 15 consecutive years under Sheila Dikshit from 1998, came a cropper in the Assembly elections failing to get even a single seat for the third straight time. Its candidates suffered crushing defeats with a majority of them even losing their deposits
With Delhi now in its kitty after a battle of prestige given its symbolic importance as the country’s capital, the BJP has extended its footprint, the victories helping it put behind some of the reverses of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections where it bagged 240 seats, short of the 272 majority mark. Coming days after the Union budget
which gave crucial tax concessions to the middle class, the BJP’s winning Lok Sabha streak in Delhi continues after it won all seven seats last year. But the premise this time was different.
Ground level issues such as water, drainage and garbage went up against volatile campaigns by both parties with voters grimly evaluating their quality of life in a polluted city.
The BJP also pushed ahead and made ‘sheesh mahal’ an oft recalled buzzword for the lavish chief minister’s residence following the renovations by Kejriwal and allegations of corruption in the Delhi excise policy. It clearly hit home.
While Modi and other party leaders repeated the need for a ‘double engine’ government, freebies offered by the AAP were countered by “Modi’s guarantee,” which appeared to find favour with voters.
The AAP, which saw its leaders Kejriwal and Sisodia jailed in the excise policy case, countered the BJP campaign with vigour to say Yamuna waters were poisoned and that it was just not being allowed to govern because the lieutenant governor was stymieing every move. It didn’t find the resonance it had hoped for.
“We fought a good election… We will play role of constructive opposition but will also be available to people of Delhi,” Kejriwal said as he conceded defeat in an election he had hoped would propel him as a national leader.
For the AAP national convenor, the face of the party launched on an anti-corruption plank in 2012, it was a tantalising seesaw ending in despair. He lost by 4,089 votes to BJP’s Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, son of former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma.
“Who will be chief minister will be decided by the central leadership,” said Verma, dubbed giant killer for defeating Kejriwal in New Delhi constituency.The BJP had not projected a CM face in the poll campaign.
As one more line was added to the Congress’ epitaph, the AAP struggled with its own existential crisis. A loss in Delhi, which it ruled for 10 successive years from 2015, signals an end to its national ambitions with now only Punjab in its pocket.
It was a dramatic downslide for the AAP, which won 67 of the 70 seats in 2015 when it established its dominance by wiping out both the Congress and the BJP and 62 in 2020. The promise of mohalla clinics, model schools, free water and electricity seemed to have lost their sheen.
At BJP offices, there were drumbeats of victory and euphoria, party workers waving flags, holding lotus cutouts, dancing and smearing colours of celebration on each other. And Modi was the mantra.
The Congress headquarters wore a desolate look and workers at the AAP office shell-shocked, their leaders huddled in conference as they pondered the future.
The BJP ruled Delhi between 1993 and 1998 when the party had three chief ministers–Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma and Sushma Swaraj.
