AAP faces existential crisis as party heavyweights Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, and Saurabh Bharadwaj bite the dust
NEW DELHI, Feb 8: Hailed by its supporters as “India’s fastest-growing political start-up”, the Aam Aadmi Party faces the biggest existential crisis in its over 10 year vintage following its defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections.
The BJP on Saturday snatched the national capital—the very foundation of AAP’s rise—winning 48 out of 70 seats and reducing the Arvind Kejriwal-led party to just 22. With the defeat, AAP lost not just political power but also its reputation of unassailability built over the past decade.
Delhi was the party’s launch pad, its success story, and its primary source of political momentum. With Kejriwal losing from New Delhi and other party leaders like Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, and Saurabh Bharadwaj also routed, the AAP’s leadership now finds itself at a crossroads.
The party’s model of governance, centred on free electricity, water, and education reforms, apparently failed to resonate with the city residents.
The BJP, with 48 seats, will form its government in Delhi after a gap of more than 26 years.
While the AAP secured victories from 22 seats, the Congress drew a blank for a third straight time.
The BJP’s vote share was 45.56 per cent, while the AAP secured 43.57 per cent votes and the Congress’s poll percentage was 6.34.
In the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls, the AAP got a 53.57-per cent vote share and bagged 62 seats. Despite a 38.51-per cent vote share, the BJP could win just eight of the 70 seats.
In the 1993 Assembly polls, the BJP won 49 seats in Delhi, while the Congress got 14 and the Janata Dal four. Three independent candidates had also secured victories in that election.
BJP’s Parvesh Verma and Tarvinder Singh Marwah emerged as the biggest giant-slayers, defeating AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia from the New Delhi and Jangpura constituencies respectively.
In a fierce contest in the New Delhi seat, Verma secured 30,088 votes, while Kejriwal trailed behind with 25,999 votes. Congress’s Sandeep Dikshit finished a distant third with 4,568 votes.
In another major upset, Marwah defeated Sisodia from Jangpura by a narrow margin of 675 votes. Amid the BJP’s sweeping victory, Chief Minister Atishi and three ministers in the outgoing AAP government—Gopal Rai, Mukesh Ahlawat and Imran Hussain—managed to secure wins.
Atishi emerged victorious in Kalkaji, defeating BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri by a margin of 3,521 votes. Rai retained the Babarpur seat with a margin of 18,994 votes against BJP’s Anil Kumar Vashisht.
Hussain, the food and civil supplies minister, won from Ballimaran with the highest margin among the AAP’s prominent faces, defeating BJP’s Kamal Bagri by 29,823 votes.
Outgoing health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj was defeated by BJP’s Shikha Roy by a margin of 3,188 votes from Greater Kailash.
While the AAP dominated Delhi’s political landscape for the last 10 years, the BJP was out of power in the city since 1998.
The Congress, which ruled the capital from 1998 to 2013 and was hoping for a resurgence, failed to open its account.
There was no reference to EVM or electoral roll manipulation or lapses by the Election Commission that the party had raised during the campaign.
Former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said: “We are not in politics for power. We see politics as a means to serve the people. Whether in government or opposition, we will stand by the people in their joys and sorrows, helping them in any way we can.”
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Atishi on Saturday accepted the people’s mandate in the assembly elections, calling it a “setback” but vowing to continue the party’s struggle against the BJP. “We accept the mandate. The war against BJP’s dictatorship and hooliganism will continue,” she said.
Celebrating BJP’s victory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to deliver the Rs 2,500 monthly payment to women, clean the Yamuna, present the CAG report in the Assembly and fulfil Delhiites’ dreams with the full energy of a double-engine government.
Projecting BJP’s win in Delhi Assembly polls as no ordinary victory, the Prime Minister said that the people have got rid of “AAP-da” after a decade and promised the entire national capital region the country’s best urban infrastructure.
“Those who have looted will have to pay back. This is also Modi’s guarantee,” he said, describing former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party colleagues as “most corrupt”, without taking any name.
In a related development, Lt Governor VK Saxena ordered the sealing of the Delhi Secretariat restricting removal of any file or computer hard disk from the office – an indication of an impending anti-corruption probe against the ousted AAP government’s functionaries. (Agencies)