BJP workers celebrate their party’s victory in the Delhi Assembly elections on February 8, 2025
| Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena
The Bharatiya Janata Party, with its win of 48 seats, returned to power in the national capital after a gap of over 26 years scuttling the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) bid for a fourth straight term. AAP won 22 seats.
The results of the Delhi Legislative Assembly elections held on February 5 and declared on Saturday delivered a jolt to the AAP with party supremo Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia losing their seats. Atishi, who had taken over as Chief Minister from Mr. Kejriwal, managed to retain her Kalkaji seat.
Delhi election results 2025 LIVE
The Congress failed to win a single seat for the third time in a row, with a majority of its candidates losing their deposit. While the BJP increased its tally from 8 to 48, there was only a 2% difference in the vote share of the AAP and the BJP.
Celebrations erupted in BJP offices across the city and outside counting centres as trends showed that the party would sail past the majority mark of 36.
Addressing party workers at the BJP headquarters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “Today’s victory is historic. The people of Delhi have thrown out AAP-da. Delhi is free from AAP-da of a decade. The mandate of Delhi is clear — development, vision and trust have won in Delhi today. Today, the pomp, anarchy, arrogance and AAP-da which had taken over Delhi, has been defeated.” Mr. Modi has been referring to the AAP government as an AAP-da (disaster) in his rallies in the run-up to the election.
Mr. Kejriwal, who had resigned as Chief Minister in September last year after he walked out of prison on bail, had said that he was seeking a “certificate of honesty from the Delhi voters”. He had announced that he would not sit on the Chief Minister’s chair until the public delivered its verdict in the election.
Mr. Kejriwal was defeated by Parvesh Verma (New Delhi Assembly segment) and Mr. Sisodia by Tarvinder Singh Marwah (Jangpura Assembly segment). Atishi emerged victorious over her BJP rival Ramesh Bidhuri in Kalkaji.
Accepting the verdict of the people of Delhi, Mr. Kejriwal said that AAP’s political journey had never been about power but about public service. “Now that the people have given their verdict, we will not only play the role of a constructive Opposition but also continue serving society.”
Training its eyes on a ‘double engine’ government for the benefit of the capital, the BJP had appealed to voters through road shows, rallies and jan sabhas, in which it promised to continue all welfare schemes in the capital such as free electricity and water, even promising to make them better.
The party had hit out at AAP for not delivering on its promises, its top leaders being investigated on corruption charges and the alleged extravagant spending on the renovation of the house allotted to Mr. Kejriwal when he was Chief Minister.
The BJP did not announce a Chief Minister face during its campaign and asked for votes in the name of Mr. Modi. It will now have to pick a Chief Minister to deliver on its promises.
Published – February 08, 2025 09:42 pm IST
