The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which was routed in the Delhi Assembly elections saw the erosion of nearly 10 percentage points in its vote share while the winner BJP not only saw a resurgence but also a significant increase in its vote share. The BJP was out of power in the national capital for over 26 years.
A win on any seat remained elusive for the Congress even as it saw a marginal improvement in its vote share. AAP secured a vote share of 43.57 per cent, down from 53.57 per cent in the 2020 polls. In the 2015 Assembly elections, it had secured 54.5 per cent of the votes. In 2020 and 2015, the party won a massive mandate by securing 67 and 62 seats respectively. However, this time it was restricted to only 22 seats.
The BJP, which is returning to power, secured a vote share of 45.56 per cent and won 48 seats. The saffron party’s vote share rose from 38.51 per cent in 2020 and 32.3 per cent in the 2015 elections. The Congress, which was in power in Delhi for 15 years from 1998 to 2013, did not win any seat and secured a vote share of 6.34 per cent. The only consolation for the grand old party was the fact that it saw an improvement of 2.1 per cent in vote share over The party polled 6.34 per cent of the valid votes as against 4.3 per cent in the 2020 assembly polls, denting its INDIA bloc partner AAP across segments.
Delhi Assembly elections saw BJP’s Karnail Singh emerge as the richest winner with assets worth Rs 259 crore, Umang Bajaj at 31 as the youngest winner, Tilak Ram Gupta as the oldest contestant at 73, and AAP’s Amanatullah Khan the candidate with the highest, 19, criminal cases.
Karnail Singh, who won from Shakur Basti, was followed by Manjinder Singh Sirsa from Rajouri Garden with Rs 248 crore and Parvesh Sahib Singh from New Delhi with Rs 115 crore.
According to data, Atishi is the only woman candidate of AAP who won this time. She retained her Kalkaji seat, defeating the BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri by a margin of 3,521 votes.
The BJP’s four women candidates -- Rekha Gupta from Shalimar Bagh, Poonam Sharma from Wazirpur, Neelam Pahelwan from Najafgarh, and Shikha Roy from Greater Kailash -- have emerged as victorious.
Even as the AAP lost the Delhi Assembly election, its candidate from Matiala Mahal secured the highest winning margin of 42,724 votes, followed by the party’s Seelampur candidate Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad who won by 42,477 votes. Despite AAP’s loss, there were four MLAs who not only won these assembly elections but also won the previous three in 2013, 2015 and 2020.
BJP candidate Mohan Singh Bisht won the Mustafabad seat by 17,578 votes, while his colleague Kapil Mishra secured victory in Karawal Nagar with a margin of 23,355 votes. AAP’s Virender Singh Kadian won the Delhi Cantt seat by 2,029 votes while Kuldeep Kumar defeated his closest rival by a margin of 6,293 in Kondli.
The Kejriwal-led party’s Sahi Ram won from Tughlakabad by 14,711 votes, Mukesh Ahlawat from Sultanpur Majra by 17,126 votes, Jarnail Singh from Tilak Nagar by 11,656 votes, and Imran Hussain from Ballimaran by 29,823 votes.
BJP’s Rekha Gupta won the Shalimar Bagh seat, defeating her AAP rival by 29,595 votes, while Manjinder Singh Sirsa emerged victorious from Rajouri Garden by 18,190 votes.
Tilak Ram Gupta won the Tri Nagar seat by 15,896 votes, Umang Bajaj from Rajinder Nagar by 1,231 votes, and Chandan Kumar Choudhary from Sangam Vihar by 344 votes.
According to the ECI data, AAP’s Prem Chauhan secured Deoli with a 36,680 vote margin and Imran Hussain bagged Ballimaran seat with 29,823 votes.
Meanwhile, the BJP made strong gains in Rohini, Uttam Nagar, and Najafgarh. Vijender Gupta delivered the party’s biggest win in Rohini with a 37,816-vote margin, followed by Pawan Sharma who won Uttam Nagar seat with 29,740 votes and Neelam Pahalwan in Najafgarh with 29,009 vote margin.
The closest contests were in Sangam Vihar and Trilokpuri, where BJP’s Chandan Kumar Choudhary and Ravi Kant won by just 344 and 392 votes, respectively recorded as the lowest winning margin. JD(U)’s Kumar was defeated by AAP’s sitting MLA Sanjeev Jha by a margin of 20,601 votes. AAP’s Jha received 1,21,181 votes whereas Kumar garnered 1,00,580 votes. Tanwar lost to AAP’s Prem Chauhan by a margin of 36,680. Chauhan bagged 86,889 votes whereas the LJP(RV) candidate got 50,209 votes.
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’s Delhi unit chief Virendra Sachdeva said the people of the national capital have completely rejected the “corrupt and incompetent rule” of AAP and has paved the way for the city’s development by giving his party a “historic” mandate. This electoral victory reflects the people’s trust in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leadership of BJP national president J P Nadda, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, said Sachdeva in a statement.
