NEW DELHI: BJP, which won the majority of seats in the Delhi assembly elections, saw four out of its nine women candidates emerging victorious. However, the total number of women elected dropped from eight in 2020 to five this year. This time, the five women who emerged victorious include four from BJP and one from AAP. The three main parties – BJP, AAP, and Congress – fielded 25 women candidates.
Overall, out of 699 total candidates, 95 were women this time, marking the highest female participation in decades.
Delhi Election Results 2025
However, this only accounts for 13.6% of the overall candidates. Historically, the highest number of women MLAs in Delhi was recorded in 1998, with nine women elected when Congress, led by Sheila Dikshit, first assumed office after Delhi became a Union Territory with its own legislature in 1993. The first assembly had just three women MLAs. The number fluctuated in subsequent years: seven in 2003, three in 2008 and 2013, and six in 2015.
This time, the victorious women from the BJP include Shikha Roy, who defeated AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj by 3,188 votes in the GK constituency; Neelam Pahalwan, who triumphed over AAP’s Tarun Kumar by 29,009 votes in Najafgarh; Rekha Gupta, who won against AAP’s Bandana Kumari by 29,595 votes; and Poonam Sharma, who defeated AAP’s Rajesh Gupta by 11,425 votes. From AAP, Atishi managed to retain her seat, defeating BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri by 3,521 votes.
Roy, a two-time councillor, caused an upset by defeating Bharadwaj in the GK constituency, while Pahalwan, a former councillor, unseated Tarun Kumar, the sitting MLA in Najafgarh. At Shalimar Bagh, it was a face-off between two women. In the 2020 polls, Gupta came in second place to Kumari, but this time, she reclaimed the seat for BJP. Kumari is a three-time MLA from the seat.
In the last election, AAP’s Rajesh Gupta won by 11,690 votes, while BJP’s Mahender Nagpal finished second with 45,641 votes. He was defeated this time by Sharma. For AAP, Atishi managed to hold onto her Kalkaji assembly seat, narrowly defeating BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri by over 900 votes in a tightly-contested race. Her victory provided a rare moment of success for the party on an otherwise disappointing day, as party chief Arvind Kejriwal and other prominent members were defeated by BJP in their respective seats.
In 2020, the women elected to the assembly included Atishi from Kalkaji, Rakhi Birla from Mangolpuri, Preeti Tomar from Tri Nagar, and Dhanwati Chandela from Rajouri Garden. Back then, AAP fielded nine women candidates, eight of whom secured seats, while none of the six women candidates fielded by BJP were successful.
During the campaign, political parties focused heavily on addressing the women voters, pledging a range of women-focused initiatives in their respective manifestos.