Delhi: BJP Romps to Victory After 27 Years, Kejriwal Among Top AAP Leaders Who Lose

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to form the next government in Delhi after 27 years, after trouncing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in a high-stakes 2025 Assembly election, with top AAP leaders, including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia losing their seats, albeit with narrow margins. Chief Minister Atishi, however, managed to retain her seat. The Congress, which had ruled Delhi for 15 years before being routed by AAP, ended with a duck.

The BJP was set to win 48 seats in the 70-member Assembly, and AAP 22 seats even as counting was yet to be completed. The vote share of BJP and AAP, as per the Election Commission website, was 45.88% and 43.585, respectively.

"Development wins, good governance triumphs," Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X, promising that BJP would leave "no stone unturned" in developing Delhi.

Conceding defeat, former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Kejriwal said he accepted the people’s verdict and his party would work as a constructive opposition while continuing to “serve the people” of the capital city.

The Delhi Assembly elections were seen as a tough fight for AAP as these were held amid widespread allegations of voter manipulation, voter disenfranchisement, use of central probe agencies against AAP leaders and their arrest, non-cooperation by the LG, “pliant” Election Commission and a hostile media.

While the AAP campaigned on its “successes” based on development and subsidies, such as the popular free bus rides for women, upgradation of school education, mohalla clinics, free water and power, the BJP's campaign focused on anti-incumbency, AAP's alleged corruption, particularly the 'Sheesh Mahal' controversy and an alleged liquor policy scandal.

Along with this, the BJP's promise of unified governance via “double engine” (more so as AAP complained of the BJP-ruled Centre creating obstacles in its governance) and offering similar subsidies as AAP, which they earlier termed as “revdis” or freebies, are being seen as their “winning formula”.

During the election campaign, in which BJP clearly had more visibility, largely due to its money power, AAP had alleged anomalies in the voters list, which it said were largely ignored by the Election Commission.

AAP alleged that voter rolls were being "manipulated" to favour BJP candidates. It held a press conference and displayed voters’ lists showing that   in Kejriwal’s New Delhi constituency, the numbers of voters had fallen by 39,757 between 2020 and 2024, then increased by 2,209 between the 2024 Lok Sabha election and the 2025 Assembly election. The number of registered voters in Delhi increased by 4,16,648 between the 2020 Assembly election and the 2024 Lok Sabha election, and approximately 3,99,362 people were added between the May 2024 Lok Sabha election and the February 2025 Assembly election, it said.

The Delhi election results pose a serious question on AAP’s future, with Kejriwal no longer in the Assembly to lead the ‘constructive opposition’. What happens to the party’s Delhi ‘governance model’ (being followed by many other states now) as well as its only government in Punjab, too, remains to be seen.

As for BJP, all eyes are on who the Chief Minister will be, and will its government deliver the promises made to the people of Delhi, especially women, and on air and water pollution and better infrastructure.

Notably, even though BJP’s campaign on religious polarisation was a bit muted this time round, its top winners include candidates known for hate speeches and statements, such as Kapil Mishra, Ravinder Negi and Parvesh Verma. However, BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri, who used abusive words against Muslims in Parliament when he was MP, lost to AAP’s Atishi in the Kalkaji Assembly seat.