The BJP on Saturday ousted the Aam Aadmi Party from power in Delhi, reclaiming control of the national capital after a gap of 27 years. The Congress, as many exit polls had predicted, failed to win even a single seat in the 70-member assembly. “Development, good governance have won; we will leave no stone unturned for Delhi’s all-round development,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X after the poll results.
Delhi Election Results 2025
The AAP’s tally of winning 22 out of 70 seats does not fully convey the magnitude of its defeat. People seem to have made extra efforts to show their disappointment with the AAP leadership. Two of its most prominent leaders –former CM Arvind Kejriwal and ex-deputy CM Manish Sisodia — have lost their own seats.
Many AAP ministers and famous faces have failed at the hustings.
Here are 10 key takeaways from the drubbing of AAP in Delhi assembly elections.
BJP: Lok Sabha slide was a blip on the march of the saffron party
Talk about comebacks: Haryana, Maharashtra and now Delhi. PM Modi-led BJP has won three state elections on a trot. In fact, not only has the party won these 3 states, it has gone on to score its best-ever tally in Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi.
Now, it’s quite clear that all the talk of decline of PM Modi’s popularity and INDIA block managing to halt the march of BJP was premature and a bit exaggerated. For the near future, the BJP will remain the party to win or to be defeated in elections across India.
Excellent at course correction: No one does it like BJP
The party has historically struggled to win the national capital despite ruling at the Centre and controlling the municipal corporations for years. This time, BJP did a course correction and consciously moved away from its past strategy of religious polarisation. There were no slogans like “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro salon ko.” Instead, the party kept focusing on corruption charges against Arvind Kejriwal and AAP.
In the run up to Delhi polls, Centre announced the formation of the eight pay commission for the government staff. Delhi has a sizable population of central government employees.
Next, the Union Budget offered a slew of tax cuts for the middle classes.
As a result, the BJP waged a totally changed and different kind of campaign in Delhi. This seems to have clicked with the voters.
‘Modi hai to mumkin hai’: The gift that keeps on giving for BJP
Cometh the election, cometh the Modi. He started the BJP’s electoral campaign with “AAP-da” jibe and immediately energised the cadre of the saffron party. Then he doubled down with his “Farziwal” dig at Arvind Kejriwal. The PM even used his reply to the motion of thanks on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha to highlight the anti-corruption charge with “Sheesh Mahal” jibe against Kejriwal and AAP. After the Lok Sabha polls, there seems to be a conscious attempt on the part of Modi not to make elections about himself but customise his message as per the state dynamics. In Delhi, he repeatedly assured electorates that all welfare programmes of AAP would continue. In fact, even BJP would better them.
Since his becoming PM in 2014, Modi has played an overwhelming role in a number of wins of the saffron party. He has been enjoying the highest approval rating among all global leaders for a long time.
After the heydays of Indira Gandhi, no other leader has dominated the Indian political firmament like Modi. He is the gift that keeps giving on for the BJP.
Beware of anti-incumbency factor
There seems to be an anti-incumbency wave sweeping across the globe. In 2024, which had been termed a “super year” for elections, incumbent governments across the political spectrum faced significant defeats worldwide. Voter dissatisfaction had led to the downfall of ruling parties in numerous countries -from UK to US- with elections taking place in around 70 nations, representing nearly half the global population. The trend of ousting sitting governments continued with Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, marking yet another major loss for an incumbent party in 2024.
The anti-incumbency becomes a more potent factor if someone is in power for 10 years, or two successive elections. So after 10 years, it’s not surprising that AAP too had succumbed to the anti-incumbency phenomenon in Delhi polls. This has happened with many parties and CMs in India.
And the loser is: Congress
And the loser is Congress…this has been one of the key takeaways in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir and now in Delhi state polls. What a turnaround for the grand-old-party since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In the Lok Sabha polls, Congress defied predictions and went on to win 99 seats. This was good enough to deny BJP a majority on its own for the third time.
But after the high of the last year’s general election, the Congress has been on a downward journey. The grand-old-party seems to have mastered the art of losing from winning positions. Haryana was said to be an election for the Congress to lose and it did. Then, it gave below-par performance in Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir.
Now, it has scored a dubious hat-trick in Delhi-failing to open its account in Delhi for the third time in a row. How to describe the trajectory of Congress in Delhi: first 3 successive wins, a sub-optimal performance and then a hat-trick of zeroes. Political scientists need to find new tools to analyse this “dominate-to-demise” of Congress in the national capital.
RSS: The ultimate force-multiplier for the saffron party
After the surprise below par performance of the saffron party in the 2024 general election, there were reports that the co-ordination between the RSS and BJP was not on the expected lines. But the RSS provided its full support to the saffron party campaign in Haryana and Maharashtra elections. This was reflected in the poll results.
As per reports, the RSS workers held over 5,000 nukkad and drawing room meetings. The BJP has Modi to run any campaign on national issues. At the same time, the RSS helps the saffron party to run hyperlocal campaigns customising its promises for different constituencies. In any BJP win, the RSS can be credited with acting as a force multiplier.
Freebies: Necessary but not sufficient for a win
Welfare programmes, freebies or revadis: Pick your name but they are here to stay. The “freebie” politics started with southern states and have gone on to become mainstream now. From Maharashtra to Jharkhand to Delhi, all three elections saw a lot of focus on welfare programmes of the state governments. While these “freebies” helped Maharashtra and Jharkhand governments come back to power, they failed to click with Delhi voters. Earlier, the KCR-led BRS and Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP too were defeated despite going big on “freebies”.
Then there is an inherent risk in just banking on “revadi” model is that some other party can always out-promise you.
So, what’s the message here? “Freebies” need to be supported by development, alliances, and other political factors. In scientific parlance, “freebies are necessary but not sufficient” to win elections.
Bihar: No chance of BJP getting ‘Nitished’
BJP has managed to breach “Kejri-wall” and come back to power in Delhi after a gap of 27 years. This is a new high for the party. The next assembly elections are set to take place in Bihar in October-November this year. Not surprising, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a number of special programmes for Bihar. Add Budget goodies and Delhi win, and we can safely say that now there is no chance of BJP getting “Nitished” in Bihar. The momentum will surely be with the NDA block.
No synergy, no leader, no common agenda: Whither INDIA bloc?
The Congress lost its presumed home-run game against BJP in Haryana. Then MVA failed to dislodge Mahayuti in Maharashtra. Now, AAP has suffered a shock defeat in Delhi. After the high of 2024 LS polls, the INDIA block has suffered a series of setbacks and it is finding it difficult to sustain its relevance and existence. AAP and Congress are already gunning at each other. Rahul Gandhi did the best “roasting” of Kejriwal during the Delhi poll campaign. There is already talk of Uddhav Thackeray coming back to saffron fold.
The coming together of opposition parties under the innovative name of INDIA block seems to have run its course, at least for now. The single goal of defeating Modi and BJP can’t take you far. There is no common agenda, no unique strategy. For now, the INDIA block appears as a motley collection of disparate parties with self-styled important leaders.
It’s time to disband the INDIA block. The opposition parties need to come up with a new name, ideology, strategy and agenda to take on the NDA.
Muslims have a BJP dilemma
The BJP did not put too much emphasis on Hindutva issues in Delhi polls. But it was not in any attempt to woo Muslims on its side. The underplay of Hindutva was to keep focus on AAP’s governance record in Delhi.
But what about Muslims? They seem to have ignored AAP’s “soft Hindutva” and voted in big numbers for the party. AAP has won six out of 7 seats in considerable Muslim population areas. But overwhelming Muslim support is not enough for AAP or any party to win elections in Delhi. This is a reality in many states across India.
Because of the continued antipathy, other parties have started taking Muslim support for granted in their fight against the BJP. Both Muslims and BJP need to find a way to change this antagonistic relationship.