BJP Back in Power in Delhi after 27 Years, AAP Badly Mauled, Kejriwal, Sisodia among the Defeated

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Feb 8: The Aam Aadmi Party’s 12 years stint in Delhi ended on Saturday with the BJP sweeping the party out of office to return to power in the national capital after 27 years and leaving the Congress to a third consecutive duck.

The BJP was all set to form the government in Delhi winning 48 seats in the 70-Member Assembly reducing the AAP, which had 62 seats in the outgoing House to mere 22 with most of its top leaders including the former chief minister and the party convenor Arvind Kejriwal, his former deputy Manish Sisodia and a host of ministers and other leaders defeated. The former chief minister Atishi who just managed to scrape through, was the only saving grace for the badly mauled AAP.

The triangular contest between the BJP, AAP and the Congress seems to have made the task easier for the BJP as the party though failed to secure even a single seat but managed to contribute in defeat the AAP at least on 13 seats where the BJP’s victory margin over the nearest AAP rival was less than the votes polled by the Congress nominee.

The 13 such seats included that of Mr Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi constituency where he lost to BJP rival Parvesh Sahib Singh, widely seen as a chief ministerial probable in New Delhi while his deputy Mr Sisodia was trounced in Jangpura. In his first response after the results, Mr Kejriwal said AAP accepted the people’s verdict. “The people’s decision is paramount. I congratulate the BJP on its victory and I hope that it lives up to the hopes and expectations of the people who have given them a majority.”

Chief Minister Atishi managed to win from south Delhi’s Kalkaji defeating BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri and Congress party’s Alka Lamba. Responding to AAP’s rout, Ms Atishi said, “I thank the people of Kalkaji and party workers who braved BJP’s hooliganism. We will continue our struggle for the people of Delhi and the country. This is a setback for AAP but we accept the people’s mandate. We will continue our fight against BJP’s dictatorship and hooliganism,” she said.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has welcomed the BJP’s victory. “My salute and congratulations to all my brothers and sisters for giving a historic victory to BJP… I am very grateful to all of you from the bottom of my heart…” Mr Modi said in Hindi, “We guarantee we will leave no stone unturned to ensure Delhi’s all-round development and to make the lives of its people better… will also ensure Delhi plays an important role in building a developed India.”

Exit polls, wide off the mark in recent elections, proved accurate for Delhi. Most of them had given the BJP an edge over AAP, which has been in power in Delhi since 2015.

The AAP established its dominance in Delhi’s political map soon after its launch when it defeated both the BJP and Congress in the 2015 polls, winning 67 of the capital’s 70 assembly seats. The party again formed its government in 2020, winning 62 seats and decimating the Opposition BJP and the Congress.

For AAP, one of its biggest challenges was the Delhi liquor policy case. Arvind Kejriwal, who gave up chief ministership, and his deputy Manish Sisodia, spent months in jail over the case. The BJP also cornered AAP over the “Sheesh Mahal“, which came to describe the Arvind Kejriwal government’s alleged huge spending on a luxurious chief minister’s bungalow complete with a jacuzzi, swimming pool and gold-plated toilets.

After 27 years in Delhi’s opposition, despite ruling at the centre in phases, the BJP has finally breached what once appeared as the AAP’s almost impregnable fortress. For all political parties in play – the BJP, AAP and Congress – this decisive mandate came as an ultimate political shake-up and a shocker.

With celebrations starting at the BJP offices across states, the percentage tally of the party brings a huge surprise. The party has pulled its vote share from around 37% to 45%, with a gain of almost 8% points, which is reflected in the number of seats.

Even though the result is a multifactorial one, the broad reasons include the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-BJP’s bold gamble to leverage the resentment fuelled by stagnant wages and deepening religious-social divide while flooding voters with freebies. In a move that could redefine the city’s future, the BJP is coming in hot with a strategy that blends populist giveaways with a hardline anti-illegal migrant blueprint.

“This goes beyond the political rhetoric; it was a promise aimed squarely at energising a voter base that had been captivated by decades-old promises of free electricity, subsidised LPG, and cash handouts,” said a senior BJP leader in Delhi.

Even though the RSS cadres mobilised in every nook and corner, from the makeshift settlements of the jhuggis to the grassroots hubs of ‘seva bastis’, and organisations such as the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Seva Bharti remained supremely and silently active on the ground, the BJP vowed to purge Delhi of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and Rohingya. The issues of illegal immigrants across the slum areas touched a raw nerve, said a senior RSS functionary.

The RSS functionaries came with their one-liners. “Koi vivad nahi tha party me, sangathan me. Agar camps nahi banega, toh sangathan mazboot rahega. (The party, the organisation stayed united, and that is the way to be strong. There were no camps inside the organisations which fetched us such a resounding mandate),” he said.

Over 30 RSS affiliated and inspired organisations continued its work for over years on the ground and across the ‘jhuggis’ of Delhi. “The coordination work, starting from ticket distribution to making strategy, fixing the target area, was fantastic this year. There was no communication gap and no intra-party, intra-organisational clash,” said another senior RSS functionary.

The BJP’s surge in Delhi does not look like a simple number game — it’s more demographic sweep than it had witnessed ever before. The party got three out of four Sikh-dominated seats, 19 out of 28 Punjabi-strong seats, and has completely locked down all constituencies where Valmiki (5 seats) and Jatav (4 seats) voters hold significant sway.

This was not just a lead; it was a dismantling of long-held vote banks, signalling a tectonic shift in the capital’s political landscape. The party also saw a strong surge in some of the Muslim dominated seats, including Mustafabad.

As the narrative of illegal migration rattled through the city, the party’s campaign stoked fierce debate on identity, safety, and the future of Delhi’s cultural fabric.

This cocktail of cash incentives blended with nationalist fervour was designed to strike a chord with millions of voters desperate for a change, setting the stage for what turned out to be the most explosive electoral contest in the national capital in decades.

The Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the results were “nothing more than a referendum on Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party.” “After all, at the height of the PM’s popularity in 2015 and 2020, AAP had won decisively in Delhi. This shows that, rather than being vindication of the policies of the PM, this vote is a rejection of Arvind Kejriwal’s politics of deceit, deception, and vastly exaggerated claims of achievement,” Mr Ramesh said.

He said the Congress took the lead in “highlighting the various scams that have occurred under Arvind Kejriwal and voters have pronounced their judgement on his twelve years of misrule.” “The Congress was expecting to do better. It has, however, increased its vote share. The campaign of the Congress was vigorous. It may not be in the Assembly but it is definitely a presence in Delhi, a presence that will be expanded electorally with the sustained efforts of lakhs of Congress workers. There will be a Congress Govt once again in Delhi in 2030,” he added.

INDIA bloc leaders, however, have remarked that the AAP and the Congress should have unitedly fought against the BJP in Delhi Assembly elections.