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The BJP ultimately won the battle hands down, and this victory will have long-term implications for national politics
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal. File images
The historic comeback of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi will be remembered for a long time. The BJP victory in the assembly polls is undoubtedly historic, but the outcome will be cited more for an overconfident Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party being unseated. After all the allegations of corruption regarding the liquor policy, his “Sheesh Mahal”, and many AAP ministers being arrested, the basic edifice on which Arvind Kejriwal’s entire politics was built came crumbling down.
While the BJP won 48 seats in the 70-member assembly, the incumbent AAP secured only 22 seats, even as the Congress was left empty-handed for the third consecutive time.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity refuses to wane. His magic wand is his commitment to the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden. His contribution towards empowering women has created a group of silent but assertive voters who are responding to the welfare measures that are directly reaching them. Not to forget a well-oiled election machinery led by union home minister Amit Shah fighting every battle tooth and nail.
Despite being jailed for corruption and vacating the throne, Kejriwal started his campaign after coming out on bail. When the BJP leadership was busy with Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Jammu and Kashmir, Kejriwal was moving door to door, covering each district in Delhi. By the time elections were announced, a confident Kejriwal had declared most of his candidates. Rightly so, he was of the firm belief that, with the Delhi BJP in disarray and the saffron party’s high command not concentrating much on the capital, events were weighing in his favour. Two weeks prior to voting, everything was in AAP’s favour.
But things began to change after the BJP’s victory in Haryana and Maharashtra, where all political pundits had virtually written off the saffron party. The BJP started to gain confidence, with the PM himself leading from the front to motivate party workers. It was the PM’s cabinet initiative that the new pay commission was announced, and secondly, income tax relief was included in the Budget 2025, which played a part in swaying the middle class towards the BJP. When Kejriwal started asking who their chief ministerial face was, the BJP refused to fall into the trap. The BJP was also on the back foot as it delayed declaring the list of candidates. The party didn’t want to leave any stone unturned in this election. The poll management and campaign plans were put into place.
PM Modi set the tone
PM Modi set the tone and tenor of the campaign by calling AAP “AAP-da” (meaning “disaster”). The Prime Minister also sent a letter to all citizens of Delhi appealing to them to give the BJP an opportunity to serve them in this century. His three rallies towards the end of campaigning changed the mood of the workers.
Top ministers, MPs, and senior party leaders were deployed to go to the voters and convince them about the programmes of the Modi government. All the constituencies were assigned to these leaders. Their task was clear: they didn’t have to get involved in the process of campaigning but work behind the scenes to increase the number of votes for the BJP by 20,000 more than last time and ensure that the party got at least 50% of votes at every booth, said sources. The homework was so meticulously done that every booth was analysed and details prepared for every assembly seat. The voters whose roots are in other states were convinced by the leaders of their respective states. This was the fight of the many unsung heroes of the BJP who worked at the ground level.
An aggressive Congress derailed AAP
Still, the Aam Aadmi Party was looking ahead in the fight that was getting closer as voting day drew near. Things started changing when the Congress jumped into the campaign with a definite agenda. The Congress leadership knew that it was not in the race, but it believed that it had lost ground and was losing more not only in Delhi but in other states as well due to Kejriwal and his party. The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, fired the first salvo at Arvind Kejriwal. That set the tone for other leaders of the party.
Ajay Maken termed Kejriwal “Farjiwal”, and Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra dared the AAP national convener to drink the water of the Yamuna River. Sandeep Dikshit cited 14 CAG reports to expose Kejriwal’s claim that Delhi was growing fast on health parameters.
It was clear to the Congress that Kejriwal was winning successive polls on the back of the grand old party’s vote bank. And to win this back their vote bank, the Congress had to ensure Kejriwal lost. The analysis of the result shows that there are 14 seats where the Congress spoiled the game for AAP. These include Timarpur, Badli, Nangloi Jat, Rajendra Nagar, New Delhi, Jangpura, Kasturba Nagar, and Mehrauli, among others.
The frontal attack by the Congress derailed Kejriwal, who was already under pressure due to 13 years of anti-incumbency and allegations of corruption. He tried to force the Congress out of the campaign by pressurising INDIA bloc allies. He started attacking the Congress, but the issues that were part of the campaign in 2013 didn’t stick. In 2013, it was the uniqueness of the AAP anti-corruption plank, and in 2020, it was freebies to Delhi voters that worked in the party’s favour. This uniqueness was gone in 2025 for Kejriwal, and the “liquor scam” as well as “Sheesh Mahal” jibes stuck. In the last week of the campaign, a derailed Kejriwal was forced to raise petty issues and announce new promises. In the end, for AAP, there was nothing new to offer.
A focused BJP campaign
The BJP, on the other hand, kept up the tempo. Its campaign was focused on convincing people that cleaning the Yamuna and making a riverfront would be its priority. Its leaders convinced people that the BJP would not only transfer money into women’s accounts but would not withdraw the freebies that were already being given.
The result was evident, as out of 12 Scheduled Caste candidates fielded by the BJP, four won, and out of 22 OBC candidates, 16 won. An analysis of domicile- and native-state-based BJP candidates shows that four out of six Purvanchali candidates won, out of 14 Haryanvi candidates, 12 won, and out of three Uttarakhand candidates, two won the elections. Of 35 seats with more than 15% Purvanchali voters, the BJP won 25. Of the “jhuggi” seats that were considered the bastion of AAP, the BJP won four out of seven, which included Timarpur, Badli, New Delhi, and RK Puram. Even Madan Bisht won from Mustafabad, which is a predominantly Muslim-dominated seat.
The BJP ultimately won the battle hands down, and this victory will have long-term implications for national politics. An aggressive Congress is unlikely to be pressurised by INDIA bloc partners, while Punjab and Delhi politics will certainly take a new turn. As the PM thundered from the BJP headquarters, the corrupt will not be spared, and he will take back the looted money, meaning that Kejriwal and his team will go through a tough phase from now onwards, and the goalposts are likely to change in Delhi as well.
