AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal hosted representatives from the Aggarwal community at his residence, on Sunday. During this meeting, the Aggarwal community extended their support to the Aam Aadmi Party for the Delhi elections. Kejriwal assured them that under the Aam Aadmi Party government, there would be no political exploitation of the trader community or the Aggarwal community in any manner. It is estimated that the vaishya/bania community has nearly 14 percent vote shares spreading in over dozen constituencies in Delhi. The Baniya community is a significant vote bank in Delhi, in no small part because its members are regarded as influential political donors. Their influence on election results can be seen on 8 out of 10 assembly seats of Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency. Baniya voters come mainly from Chandani Chowk, Adarsh Nagar, Shalimar Bagh, Shakur Basti, Tri Nagar, Wazir Pur, Model Town, Sadar Bazar, Gandhi Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Jangpura, Viswas Nagar, Rohtash Nagar, Karol BAgh, Rajender Nagar, etc.
Traditionally, they support BJP in Lok Sabha elections while AAP in Vidhan Sabha elections. In 2020 Vidhan Sabha elections, BJP got success to win just 6 seats where Baniya voters are in influential position with combination of Sikh and Punjabi voters and rest all seats were swept by the AAP. However, the same voters supported BJP in 2024 General Elections.
AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal hosted representatives from the Aggarwal community at his residence, on Sunday. Kejriwal assured them that under the AAP, there would be no political exploitation of the trader community or the Aggarwal community in any manner. Taking to social media platform X, Arvind Kejriwal expressed his gratitude, stating, “Met with representatives of the Aggarwal community at my residence today and thanked them for their continued support to the Aam Aadmi Party. With the blessings of Maharaja Agrasen, we have served the people of Delhi with sincerity and will continue to do so in the future.”
Senior AAP leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta highlighted that people from all 70 constituencies of Delhi came together to showcase the unity of the Aggarwal community by meeting Arvind Kejriwal. He remarked, “Arvind Kejriwal himself belongs to the Aggarwal community. The BJP has subjected him to numerous injustices, including imprisonment and false cases.”
The AAP had taken Delhi by storm in 2013 in its first electoral outing, winning 28 of the 70 seats, with a vote share of 29.49%. It went on to pulverize its opponents two years later in 2015, when it won 67 seats (leaving only three for the BJP and none for the Congress) with a vote share of 54.34%, a feat it almost repeated in 2020. Although its tally marginally dipped to 62, the AAP maintained a vote share of 53.57% in the 2020 Assembly elections. In 2020, the BJP registered its best vote share (38.51%) in two decades, but it was still 15 percentage points behind the AAP.