NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been ousted from power in the Delhi Assembly elections, paving the way for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government with a commanding majority.
The saffron party secured 48 out of 70 Assembly seats, while AAP was reduced to 22 seats. The Congress, meanwhile, once again failed to open its account in the national capital.
The downfall of AAP in the Assembly elections has triggered intense discussions on whether AAP’s decision to contest alone—without an alliance with the Congress—proved to be a strategic blunder.
Congress Vote Share: A Spoiler for AAP?
One of the biggest shocks of the election was the defeat of AAP’s top leadership, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Kejriwal lost in the New Delhi constituency to BJP’s Parvesh Verma by a margin of 4,089 votes. Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit, who finished third with 4,568 votes, secured more votes than the margin of Kejriwal’s defeat.
If AAP and Congress had formed an alliance and agreed to field Arvind Kejriwal, could he have secured the 4,568 votes that Sandeep Dikshit received?
In at least 13 key constituencies, Congress candidates secured more votes than the margin between AAP and Congress. These constituencies include Jangpura, New Delhi, Greater Kailash, Malviya Nagar and others.
In Jangpura, AAP’s Manish Sisodia lost to BJP’s Tarvinder Singh Marwah by a mere 675 votes, while Congress candidate Farhad Suri secured 7,350 votes.
In Greater Kailash, BJP’s Shikha Roy defeated AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj by 3,188 votes, while the Congress candidate received 6,711 votes.
In Malviya Nagar, BJP’s Satish Upadhyay won against AAP’s Somnath Bharti by 2,131 votes, while Congress’s Jitender Kochhar secured 6,770 votes.
When The New Indian went on the ground and spoke to the jhuggi dwellers of Indira Camp, it was evident that the residents’ votes were divided between AAP and Congress, and they were confused.
Even in seats where AAP won, such as Kalkaji, Sadar Bazar, Delhi Cantonment, and Ambedkar Nagar, Congress candidates polled votes exceeding the winning margin.
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A similar trend emerged in SC-reserved constituencies like Kondli, Seemapuri, and Patel Nagar, where AAP secured victories, but Congress’s vote share was significant enough to impact the final tally.
For instance, in Kasturba Nagar, Congress candidate Abhishek Dutt polled 27,019 votes, more than AAP’s Ramesh Pahelwan, who secured 18,617 votes, leaving BJP’s Neeraj Basoya to win comfortably with a margin of 11,048 votes.
According to the election commission of India the final vote share tells a compelling story: BJP secured 45%, AAP 43%, and Congress 6%. While Congress’s share saw an increase from its 4.26% vote share in 2020, it was not enough to win any seats but proved detrimental to AAP’s prospects.
Despite being part of the INDIA bloc, AAP and Congress decided to contest the Delhi Assembly elections separately. The two parties had previously joined hands for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but the alliance failed to yield results, with BJP sweeping all seven parliamentary seats in Delhi.
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J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah’s tweet on Saturday, “Aur lado aapas mein’ indicates that the decision of AAP and Congress, to turn rivals in assembly elections may have played a big role in BJP’s victory.
In several constituencies, the combined vote share of AAP and Congress could have outnumbered BJP, potentially changing the election outcome. However, the lack of a united opposition resulted in a clear edge for the ruling party.
