LIVE | BJP sweeps Delhi elections; people have short-circuited short-cut politics: Modi
The saffron party won 48 seats, while the AAP could muster only 22 of the 70 Assembly seats
The BJP on Saturday (February 8) secured a resounding victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, returning to power after 27 years, and ending the Aam Aadmi Party’s decade-long reign in the national capital.
While the BJP won 48 of the 70 Assembly seats, the AAP could secure wins in just 22 constituencies. The Congress on the other hand was left red-faced, unable to open its account in Delhi for the third time in a row.
AAP's vote share dwindles, Congress' rises by 2%
In the 2019 Assembly polls, the AAP had bagged 62 seats while the BJP had won only eight.
The polls saw the BJP’s vote share rise by 7 per cent and the AAP’s fall by 10 per cent. The Congress despite drawing a blank improved its vote share by 2.1 per cent hike by polling 6.34 per cent of the valid votes as against 4.3 per cent in 2020.
What came as a major embarrassment for the AAP was the defeat of its top guns including party chief Arvind Kejriwal and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. Chief Minister Atishi and three ministers in the outgoing AAP government – Gopal Rai, Mukesh Ahlawat and Imran Hussain – however managed to secure wins, offering a rare consolation for the party.
Modi’s 'AAP-da', 'short-circuit' dig
Hailing the BJP's victory as "historic", Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a stinging attack on the AAP and the Congress, saying the country needs a serious political transformation and not politics of "dhoort-ta (deceit) and moorkhta (foolishness)".
He said the people of Delhi have "short-circuited the politics of short cuts" and asserted that the mandate has made it clear that there's no space for corruption and lies in politics.
Addressing party workers and supporters at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, Modi said these 'AAP-da' people came into politics saying that they will change politics but they emerged as "kattar baimaan (most dishonest)".
The prime minister said the people of Delhi have shown the door to 'AAP-da' and now a double-engine government will ensure development at a double speed.
‘Double-speed development for Delhi’
He said Delhiites are celebrating BJP's victory and respite from 'AAP-da', a term he used throughout the campaign to criticise the Aam Aadmi Party's rule.
"People of Delhi today have enthusiasm and satisfaction. There is relief of liberating Delhi from 'AAP-da'. I thank all Delhiites for entrusting their faith in 'Modi ki guarantee'," the prime minister said in his address from BJP headquarters.
"Now Delhi's double-engine government will ensure development at double speed. It is a historic win and not a usual victory as the people of Delhi have shown the door to 'AAP-da'. Delhi has become Aapda-mukt," Modi said.
‘Gold medal in defeat’: PM's swipe at Cong
Training his guns on the Congress, Modi said people have again given a big message to the opposition party and it has secured a "double hat-trick" in the national capital by failing to open account in six elections.
"These people are giving themselves the gold medal in defeat. The truth is that the country is not willing to trust the Congress. I had said the last time that the Congress has become a parasitic party. It drowns and takes down its allies with it," he said.
Modi claimed that the Congress is finishing off its allies one by one and its manner is also very interesting as it steals the issues and language of its coalition partners to dent their vote bank.
Read our election stories here
Delhi elections: BJP upbeat about win; AAP, Cong reject exit polls, flay EC ‘AAP-da’: Day before Delhi voting, Modi targets Kejriwal in Parliament
Decoding Delhi election: Who has edge in high-stakes battle?
Congress promises to bring back glory of Sheila Dikshit's rule in Delhi
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- 8 Feb 2025 12:27 PM GMT
Congress registers third-consecutive drought in Delhi
The Congress was decimated in the Delhi elections on Saturday, failing to open its account in the 70-member assembly for a third consecutive time and its key candidates suffering crushing defeats.
The only consolation, however, was a slight improvement in the party's vote share, with leaders proclaiming that they would win back the trust of the people and exuded confidence of forming its government in 2030.
An early one segment lead in Badli was soon lost and the party, now a pale shadow of its glorious past under late chief minister Sheila Dikshit, failed to open its account once again.
Her son Sandeep Dikshit finished third in New Delhi segment where BJP's Parvesh Sahib Verma defeated AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal by over 3000 votes. While Verma polled 25057 votes and Kejriwal 22057, Dikshit gathered just 3873, in a shock culmination of the Sheila Dikshit legacy. Sheila Dikshit was the chief minister of Delhi for three terms.
A majority of Congress candidates lost their deposits and only three of them managed to save them. These include Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar, who was the only Congress leader to finish second, Rohit Choudhary from Nangloi Jat and Devendra Yadav from Badli.
Most Congress candidates finished third after BJP or AAP, but in some even finished fourth after the AIMIM where they had put up its candidates in Muslim dominates segments.
Congress heavyweights were decimated -- state unit chief Devender Yadav ended up third in Badli, Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba finished third in Kalkaji where Chief Minister Atishi won; former minister Haroon Yusuf was third in Ballimaran which he represented five times between 1993 to 2013.
Congress scripted the same story of losses everywhere with only one tiny consolation of a 2.1 per cent improvement in vote share over 2020.
The party polled 6.39 per cent of the valid votes as against 4.3 per cent in the 2020 assembly polls, massively denting its INDIA bloc partner Aam Aadmi Party across segments.
AAP's vote share loss was massive -- down from 53.6 per cent in 2020 to 43.19 per cent -- a drop of over ten per cent.
The Congress managed to play a spoiler for the AAP which suffered heavily in Scheduled Caste and Muslim-dominated segments where Congress made minor gains at AAP's cost and BJP's advantage.
"Aur lado aapas mein!!! (Keep on fighting each other)," National Conference leader and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah posted on X with a meme, in an apparent jibe at the AAP and the Congress.
The decimation of the Congress and its role of a spoiler are bound to impact the unity of an already-fragile INDIA bloc whose partners have been at variance over ideological issues and electoral alignments. The friction between INDIA bloc partners may be visible in the assembly polls in Bihar.
The poor show of the Congress in Delhi, after Haryana and Maharashtra, will also lead to further diminishing of its dominant position in the Opposition bloc.
- 8 Feb 2025 11:50 AM GMT
Here are the 21 AAP candidates who have won
Full list of AAP winners (21) and 1 candidate leading, with constituency names
- Kirari: Anil Jha
- Sultanpur Majra: Mukesh Kumar Ahlawat
- Sadar Bazar: Som Dutt
- Chandni Chowk: Punardeep Singh Sawhney (Sabby)
- Matia Mahal: Aaley Mohammed Iqbal
- Ballimaran: Imran Hussain
- Karol Bagh: Vishesh Ravi
- Patel Nagar: Pravesh Ratn
- Tilak Nagar: Jarnail Singh
- Delhi Cantt: Virender Singh Kadian
- Deoli: Prem Chauhan
- Ambedkar Nagar: Dr. Ajay Dutt
- Kalkaji: Atishi
- Tughlakabad: Sahi Ram
- Badarpur: Ram Singh Netaji
- Okhla: Amanatullah Khan
- Kondli: Kuldeep Kumar (Monu)
- Seemapuri: Veer Singh Dhingan
- Seelampur: Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad
- Babarpur: Gopal Rai
- Gokalpur: Surendra Kumar
Leading: Burari: Sanjeev Jha
- 8 Feb 2025 11:47 AM GMT
Here are the 47 BJP candidates who have won
Full list: BJP winners (47) and 1 candidate leading with constituency names
- Nerela: Raj Karan Khatri
- Timarpur: Surya Prakash Khatri
- Adarsh Nagar: Raj Kumar Bhatia
- Badli: Aahir Deepak Chaudharyy
- Rithala: Kulwant Rana
- Bawana: Ravinder Indraj Singh
- Mundka: Gajender Drall
- Nangloi Jat: Manoj Kumar Shokeen
- Mangol Puri: Raj Kumar Chauhan
- Rohini: Vijender Gupta
- Shalimar Bagh: Rekha Gupta
- Shakur Basti: Karnail Singh
- Tri Nagar: Tilak Ram Gupta
- Wazirpur: Poonam Sharma
- Model Town: Ashok Goel
- Moti Nagar: Harish Khurana
- Madipur: Kailash Gangwal
- Rajouri Garden: Manjinder Singh Sirsa
- Hari Nagar: Shyam Sharma
- Janakpuri: Ashish Sood
- Uttam Nagar: Pawan Sharma
- Dwarka: Parduymn Singh Rajput
- Matiala: Sandeep Sehrawat
- Najafgarh: Neelam Pahalwan
- Bijwasan: Kailash Gahlot
- Palam: Kuldeep Solanki
- Rajinder Nagar: Umang Bajaj
- New Delhi: Parvesh Sahib Singh (Parvesh Verma)
- Jangpura: Tarvinder Singh Marwah
- Kasturba Nagar: Neeraj Basoya
- Malviya Nagar: Satish Upadhyay
- RK Puram: Anil Kumar Sharma
- Mehrauli: Gajender Singh Yadav
- Chhatarpur: Kartar Singh Tanwar
- Sangam Vihar: Chandan Kumar Choudhary
- Greater Kailash: Shikha Roy
- Trilokpuri: Ravi Kant
- Patparganj: Ravinder Singh Negi (Ravi Negi)
- Laxmi Nagar: Abhay Verma
- Vishwas Nagar: Om Prakash Sharma
- Krishna Nagar: Dr Anil Goyal
- Gandhi Nagar: Arvinder Singh Lovely
- Shahdara: Sanjay Goyal
- Rohtas Nagar: Jitender Mahajan
- Ghonda: Ajay Mahawar
- Mustafabad: Mohan Singh Bisht
- Karawal Nagar: Kapil Mishra
Leading: Vikaspuri: Pankaj Kumar Singh
- 8 Feb 2025 11:31 AM GMT
AAP's 'deception drive' now vanished: Naqvi
BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP party's "deception drive" that started from Jantar Mantar has ended in "choo-mantar (vanishing)" in Delhi elections.
The former Union minister said the Delhi Assembly election result reflects that "kushasan (misgovernance)" is trumped by "sushasan (good governance)." "The Aam Aadmi Party's deception drive that started from Jantar Mantar has ended up 'choo-mantar (vanished)' in Delhi elections," he said.
He also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi demolished the deceit of communal polarisation with the strength of inclusive empowerment.
"That is why all sections of the society in Delhi voted for the BJP and the BJP government will be formed with a huge majority in the national capital," Naqvi told reporters in Delhi.
