BJP's Delhiverance

The double engine sarkaar will have to show some quick results to Delhi's middle class which has trusted it to improve the city’s infrastructure

- Avantika Mehta

OVERNIGHT, former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s face, with that laconic smile, is off from all bus stops, behind the auto rickshaws and hoardings in Delhi. When the BJP wants to erase an opponent’s presence from a city, it can be very swift. And why not? The BJP has been spoiling for this fight for nearly three decades. Finally, when victory comes in this bombastic fashion, the repercussions will have to be swift.

But has the idea of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), as all its leaders never tire of insisting, and the brand of politics of Kejriwal been completely extinguished? The party will rue the fact that it is the only one ever to lose an election with a vote share of 43.55 per cent. It is a big 10 per cent drop from the party’s sweep in 2020 but for such an emphatic win by the BJP (45.76 per cent), the difference is only a little over two per cent. But these are ballpark numbers. A close look at vote shares in different constituencies is more revealing.

Kejriwal’s AAP saw a sharp decline in vote share across key demographics, particularly among Dalit and Muslim voters. In the SC-reserved constituencies, its vote share dropped by 15-20 per cent. In areas where AAP had previously tasted easy victories, such as Seemapuri and Karol Bagh, the party’s vote share fell from over 60 per cent in 2020 to below 50 per cent in 2025. More concerning for AAP was its defeat in Bawana, Madipur and Mangolpuri— seats it had dominated in the previous elections. In these areas, the BJP was not only able to consolidate its own vote bank but also attract swing voters.

According to Yashwant Deshmukh, the founder-director of C-Voter, the middle class was the “pendulum vote bank” in this election, and they swung towards the BJP given AAP’s image problems after the corruption charges. Further, by AAP’s own admission, they had been unable to deliver on many of their welfare schemes, which left the middle class upset.