The historic coming back to power of the BJP in Delhi will be remembered for long. The BJP victory is undoubtedly historic, but it will be remembered more for an overconfident Kejriwal-led AAP thrown out of power, after all the allegations of corruption in Liquor policy, his Sheesh Mahal, and many of the AAP ministers being arrested on the allegation of corruption. The basic edifice of Arvind Kejriwal’s entire politics was built came crumbling down. On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity refuses to wane. His magic wand is his commitment to the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden. His contribution towards empowering women has created a group of silent but assertive voters responding to the welfare measures that are directly reaching them. Not to forget a well-oiled election machinery led by Home Minister Amit Shah fighting every battle tooth and nail.
Despite being jailed for corruption and vacating the throne, Kejriwal started his campaign after coming out. When BJP leadership was busy with Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Jammu and Kashmir, Kejriwal was moving door to door covering each district. By the time elections were announced, a confident Kejriwal had announced most of his candidates. Rightly so, he was of the firm belief that with BJP Delhi in disarray and BJP high command not concentrating much on Delhi was weighing in his favour. Two weeks prior to the voting everything was in AAP’s favour.
But things began to change after victory in Haryana and Maharashtra where all political pundits declared loss for the BJP. The BJP started to gain confidence with the PM himself leading from the front to motivate the party workers. It was PM Modi’s cabinet initiative that a new pay commission was announced by the Cabinet and secondly, the rebates on IT returns announced in the Budget 2025 played its part in swaying the middle class towards the BJP. When Kejriwal started asking who their Chief ministers were, the BJP refused to fall into the trap. BJP was also on the back foot as it delayed declaring the list of candidates. BJP didn’t want to leave any stone unturned in this election. The election management and campaign plan were put into place.
PM Modi set the tone
PM Modi set the tone and tenor of the campaign by naming AAP as “Aapda” which in Hindi means disaster. The PM also sent a letter to all citizens of Delhi appealing to them to give BJP the opportunity to serve BJP in the 21st century. His 3 rallies at the end changed the mood of the workers. Top Ministers, MPs, and senior party leaders were deployed to go to the voters and convince them about the programmes of the Modi govt. All the constituencies were assigned to these leaders. Their task was clear they don’t have to get involved in the process of campaign and work behind the scenes to increase the number of votes for the BJP. Sources said that these leaders were given specific task to increase the number of votes by 20000 more than the last time and ensure that party gets at least 50% votes on every booth. The most important task was to enhance voting on every booth. The Homework was so meticulously planned that every booth was analysed and details prepared for every assembly seat. The voters whose roots are in other states were convinced by the leaders of their respective states. This is the fight of many unsung heroes of the BJP who worked at the ground level.
An aggressive Congress derailed AAP
Still, the Aam Aadmi Party was looking ahead in the fight that was getting closer as the voting day drew near. Things started changing when Congress jumped into a campaign with a definite agenda. Congress leadership knew that they were not in the race, but they believed that they had lost base and lost not only in Delhi but in other states as well due to Kejriwal and his party. Leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi fired the first salvo at Arvin Kejriwal. That set the tone for other leaders of the party. Ajay Maken termed Kejriwal as Farjiwal and Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi dared Kejriwal to drink the water of the Yamuna River. Sandip Dixit cited 14 CAG reports to expose Kejriwal’s claim that Delhi growing fast on Health parameters. It was clear to the Congress that it was their vote bank on which Kejriwal was winning successive polls and to win back their vote bank they must ensure Kejriwal loses. The analysis of results shows that there are 14 seats where Congress spoiled the game for AAP. The seats are Timarpur, Badli, Nangloi Jat, Rajendra Nagar, New Delhi, and Jungpura. Kasturba Nagar, Mehrauli among them.
The frontal attack of the Congress derailed Kejriwal who was already under pressure due to 13 years of anti-incumbency and allegations of corruption. He tried to force Congress out of the campaign by pressurising INDI allies. He started attacking Congress but the issues that were part of a campaign in 2013 didn’t stick. 2013, it was the uniqueness of AAP's anti-corruption plank, 2020 it was freebies to Delhi voters that worked in AAP’s favour. This uniqueness was gone in 2025 for Kejriwal and the liquor scam as well as Sheesh Mahal stuck well. In the last week of the campaign, a derailed Kejriwal was forced to raise petty issues and announce new promises. In the end for AAP, there was nothing new to offer.
A focussed BJP campaign
The BJP on the other hand kept up the tempo. Their campaign was focussed on convincing people that cleaning Yamuna and making the Yamuna riverfront will be their priority. Their leaders convinced people that the BJP would not only transfer money to women’s accounts but would not withdraw the freebies that were already given. The result was evident as out of 12 SC candidates of BJP, 4 won and out of 22 OBC, 16 won. An analysis of domicile and native state-based BJP candidates, 4 out of 6 Purvanchali candidates won, out of 14, 12 Haryanvi candidates won, and out of 3 Uttarakhand candidates, 2 won the elections. 35 seats with more than 15% Purvanchali voters, BJP won 25 seats. Jhuggi seats that were considered forte of AAP, BJP won 4 out of 7 which includes Timarpur, Badli, New Delhi, and RK Puram. Even Madan Bisht won from Mustafabad which is a predominantly Muslim-dominated seat.
BJP ultimately won the battle hands down, but this victory will have long-term implications on national politics. An aggressive Congress is unlikely to be pressurised by INDI alliance partners, while Punjab and Delhi politics will certainly take a new turn. As PM thundered from BJP headquarters that the corrupt will not be spared, and he will take out the looted money means that Kejriwal and his team will go through a tough phase from now onwards and the goalpost is likely to change in Delhi as well.
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