The Aam Aadmi Party and Congress, both members of the INDIA bloc, contesting separately in the 2025 Delhi assembly election appeared to have been a key factor in splitting the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party vote. A war of words between Congress Rahul Gandhi and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal during the Delhi election campaigns further dented the ruling party’s chances.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday also passed a snide remark on opposition parties as the BJP was heading for a decisive victory in the Delhi assembly polls. Follow Delhi election results live updates
“Aur lado aapas mein !!! (Keep on Fighting Each Other),” Omar abdullah posted on x with a meme.
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The AAP saw a drop of nearly 10 percentage points in its vote share, while the winner BJP not only saw a resurgence but also a significant increase in its vote share. The BJP was out of power in the national capital for more than 26 years.
The Congresswhich failed to win a single seat for the third consecutive time in Delhi, saw a marginal improvement in its vote share.
The AAP secured a vote share of 43.57 per cent, down from 53.57 per cent in the 2020 assembly election. In the 2015 poll, it had secured 54.5 per cent of the votes.
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In 2020 and 2015, the AAP won a massive mandate by securing 67 and 62 seats, respectively. However, this time, it was restricted to only 22 seats.
The BJP, which is returning to power, secured a vote share of 45.56 per cent and won 48 seats. Its vote share jumped from 38.51 per cent in 2020 and 32.3 per cent in the 2015 election.
For the Congress, which was in power in Delhi for 15 years from 1998 to 2013, the only consolation was the fact that it saw an improvement of 2.1 per cent in vote share over
The Congress polled 6.34 per cent of the valid votes as against 4.3 per cent in the 2020 assembly poll.
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Seats where top AAP leaders lost to BJP by slim margins
The Congress received more votes than the winning margin in 14 constituencies where the BJP emerged victorious, defeating AAP candidates, including former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his former deputy Manish Sisodia.
These 14 seats are Timarpur, Badli, Nangloi Jat, Madipur, Rajender Nagar, New Delhi, Jangpura, Kasturba Nagar, Malviya Nagar, Mehrauli, Chhatarpur, Sangam Vihar, Greater Kailash, and Trilokpuri.
New Delhi seat: BJP’s Parvesh Verma, son of Delhi CM Sahib Singh Verma, defeated Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi constituency. Kejriwal lost the seat by 4,089 vote margin in the constituency, where Sandeep Dikshit of the Congress finished a distant third with 4,568 votes, higher than the victory margin.
Jangpura seat: Manish Sisodia lost to BJP’s Tarvinder Singh Marwah by just 675 votes, whereas Farhad Suri of the Congress received 7,350 votes.
Greater Kailash seat: Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj was defeated by BJP’s Shikha Roy by 3,188 votes with Congress candidate Garvit Singhvi securing 6,711 votes.
Malviya Nagar: A similar scenario played out here, where BJP’s Satish Upadhyay edged out three-time MLA Somnath Bharti by 2,131 votes. Congress candidate Jitender Kumar Kochar secured 6,770 votes.
Rajinder Nagar: Senior AAP leader Durgesh Pathak suffered a narrow defeat against BJP’s Umang Bajaj by 1,231 votes. Congress’s Vineet Yadav, who bagged 4,105 votes, contributed to AAP’s setback.
However, there are seats where the Congress secured more votes than the victory margin but the AAP won.
This includes Kalkaji, where Delhi chief minister Atishi defeated BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri. The only seat where Congress secured second place was Kasturba Nagar, where Abhishek Dutt polled 27,019 votes but lost to BJP’s Neeraj Basoya, who got 38,067 votes.
In three constituencies, including Mehrauli, Okhla, and Mustafabad, the Congress failed to even make it to the top three.
(With inputs from PTI)
