Kejriwal, Sisodia, others lose; Atishi wins
Wins 48 seats, AAP gets 22, Cong 0 for 3rd time
NEW DELHI, Feb 8: 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.
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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.
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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 people of Delhi have dismantled the ‘sheesh mahal’ of lies, deceit and corruption and made the city “AAP-da free”, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
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 every move was being stymied by the Lieutenant Governor. 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.
Chief Minister Atishi, who took over after Kejriwal stepped down last year when he was jailed, won by 3,521 votes against BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri.
“I have won my seat but this is not a time for celebration — this is the time to fight. The battle against BJP’s authoritarianism will continue,” she said.
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.
The BJP’s vote share has steadily grown from over 32 per cent in 2015 to 38.5 per cent in 2020 against the AAP’s over 54 per cent and 53.5 per cent respectively. This time the BJP’s share jumped to 45.56 per cent, while the AAP’s fell to 43.57 per cent.
In the run up to the Delhi elections, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) went all out to persuade voters elect an “effective and accountable” government for the progress of the national capital, contributing to the BJP’s thumping victory.
RSS volunteers carried out a silent voter awareness campaign and held “thousands of drawing room meetings” across Delhi to discuss “pressing” public issues like lack of required cleanliness, potable water supply, inadequate healthcare services, air pollution and cleaning of Yamuna river, according to sources.
Meanwhile, 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.
Among the 699 candidates who contested, the youngest winner was 31-year-old Umang Bajaj of the BJP, who secured victory from the Rajinder Nagar constituency.
On the other hand, the oldest candidate to contest was 73-year-old Tilak Ram Gupta, who won from the Tri Nagar seat.
Several winning candidates also have pending criminal cases, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms.
AAP’s Amanatullah Khan from Okhla is one such candidate, with 19 criminal cases against him, followed by Kuldeep Kumar from Kondli with seven cases.
Aam Aadmi Party’s Jarnail Singh from Tilak Nagar has four, and Sanjeev Jha from Burari has two cases.
From the saffron party, Manjinder Singh Sirsa has five criminal cases, while Parvesh Verma has one.
Verma secured the victory against AAP supremo and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi constituency, winning by a margin of 4,089 votes.
Sirsa won the Rajouri Garden seat by 18,190 votes, Tilak Ram Gupta by 15,896 votes, and Umang Bajaj by 1,231 votes.
Khan won Okhla by 23,639 votes, Jarnail Singh by 11,656 votes, and Sanjeev Jha by 20,601 votes.
Meawhile, Five women candidates, including outgoing Chief Minister Atishi won in the Delhi Assembly polls this time, down from eight in the 2020 elections.
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.
Of the total 699 candidates in the fray this time, 96 were women. Five years earlier, 672 candidates fought the Assembly polls and of them 76 were women. Eight women candidates had won in the 2020 Assembly polls.
Among the three key political parties in the elections, the BJP and AAP had fielded nine women candidates each whereas the Congress had seven women nominees. All three parties fielded more women candidates this time than the 2020 Assembly polls.(PTI)
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