Winds of change in Delhi: Will air quality also improve after BJP's stunning comeback?

According to a recent report, Delhi emerged as the country's second-most polluted city for the fourth consecutive month in January.

Come winter, it's the same story every year in Delhi - people waking up to bad air days with visible blanket of smog. The air quality in the capital city worsens around Diwali, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) at times rising above 400, a level the WHO terms 'hazardous'.

According to a recent report, Delhi emerged as the country's second-most polluted city for the fourth consecutive month in January. "Throughout January, Delhi experienced 23 days in the 'very poor' category, three days fell into the 'severe' category, three in poor category and two days in moderate category. Delhi recorded an average PM2.5 concentration of 165 micrograms per cubic metre in January 2025," the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said.

The national capital continues to grapple with severe air pollution, but will the saffron party's comeback make a difference?

In its manifesto, the BJP promised substantial reduction in air pollution. In its final part of 'Viksit Delhi, Sankalp Patra 2025', the party vowed to reduce PM2.5 and PM10 levels by half in the next five years if voted to power.

"We will launch the Delhi Clean Air Mission to halve Delhi's average AQI by 2030 and reduce the number of days with poor AQI. Our target is to reduce PM-2.5 and PM-10 levels by 50%," it said. Under the mission, the BJP said it will deploy road-sweeping machines in every assembly constituency and water-sprinkling machines in every municipal ward. The party promised to deploy more such machines in highly polluted areas such as "Anand Vihar, Mundka, RK Puram" etc.

The party said it will prioritise paving 500 kilometres of unpaved roads to control dust on streets. As per the manifesto, other measures to control air pollution included installing air purifying devices, called WAYU, at key intersections and roads; incentivising transition of 50 percent vehicles to electric or CNG; and developing green belts and improving tree cover.

During campaigning, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari too asserted Delhi will be free of traffic congestion and air pollution within five years if the BJP wins the February 5 assembly polls. "I give my word ... If you install a BJP engine in the city government, we will free Delhi from traffic jams and air pollution within five years. I am making this promise," he said.

The senior BJP leader also accused the AAP government of failing to address the national capital's water and pollution crises. "The people you trusted neither cared about drinking water nor talked about the Yamuna's purification," he said.

BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, during an event, voiced concern about Delhi's air pollution and said that the environment in Delhi has remained bad for the past 10-12 years.

The BJP and AAP had even engaged in a poster war when Delhi's air quality breached the "severe plus" category and hit the season's worst levels in November 2024. The Delhi BJP shared a post on X, with an image showing former CM Arvind Kejriwal wearing a mask. "Delhi mein saaso ka Apaatkal," the saffron party said taking a dig at AAP.

#___ pic.twitter.com/yUiOyXP55p
BJP Delhi (@BJP4Delhi) November 18, 2024

Responding to the attack, the AAP government released posters sharing an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi wearing a mask. "Modi's poisonous reign over all of north India," the party said. 

pic.twitter.com/0vRDbRJYjs AAP (@AamAadmiParty) November 18, 2024

According to a recent study, Delhi-NCR's pollution during October-November was largely of local origin, indicating that stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana was not a major contributor.

Researchers, led by those at Japan's Research Institute for Humanity and Nature under the 'Aakash Project', said that changes in the national capital's air quality could be related more with the stepping up or down of the 'GRAP' anti-pollution measures. The analysis showed that emissions over Punjab from burning stubbles "contributed only a meagre (nearly 14%) to the overall PM2.5 over Delhi-NCR during October-November 2022".

The AAP has often attributed the worsening air quality to increased stubble burning in neighboring states, while the BJP criticised the Kejriwal-led party for its lack of action over the past decade.