A 7-PIECE PUZZLE

The political-scape of India is undergoing a significant transformation in recent years, particularly in the capital. Traditional polling patterns that defined electoral politics for years are on the way out, making way for a more unpredictable scenario, with people-party relations more complex than ever before, Anup Verma writes

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AFTER supporting the Congress in the 2004 and 2009 parliamentary elections, many voters shifted their loyalties towards the BJP in 2014 and 2019. The Congress enjoyed the support of its traditional voters, while the saffron party gained from the anti-incumbency waves against the Sheila Dikshit-led Delhi government which lasted for 15 years, and the Manmohan Singh dispensation, which was in the Centre between 2004 and 2014.

A During this time, the Aam Aadmi Party emerged as a new political force in the metropolis, winning 28 of the 70 assembly seats in the 2013 elections, ending the Congress' 15-year rule. Despite claims of the mythologised BJP wave across the country, the party's vote percentage was 46.40%, less than the combined vote share of the Congress and the AAP. Both opposition parties, realising the need for an alliance, initiated talks on several occasions. For the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal expressed his party's interest in forming an alliance with the Congress for 33 seats in Punjab, Haryana, Goa, and Delhi.

According to Kejriwal, the Congress had refused to form an alliance with the AAP in Punjab and Goa. AAP claimed that everything was planned, but Congress leaders stopped responding to their calls a day before they were scheduled to hold a joint press conference to announce the alliance.

The two parties then fielded their candidates for all Delhi, Punjab, Goa and Haryana seats. However, they failed to win even a single seat in Delhi, the BJP sweeping all seven seats by a 56.86% vote share. The Congress and the AAP, got 22.51% and 18.11% votes, respectively. The saffron party gained 10.46% of the votes, and Congress also gained 7.41% of the votes compared to the 2014 general elections. Meanwhile, the AAP lost 14.79% of the vote share.