AAP Swept Out of Power in Delhi by BJP, Kejriwal Loses Seat

While the BJP will take two to three days to announce its Chief Minister, it is likely to be a toss-up between Parvesh Verma, Rekha Gupta and Ashish Sood.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

For the first time in its 12-year history and after three Assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party will sit in the opposition, with Delhi voters reducing it to just 22 seats, down from the 62 it secured in the 2020 polls.

The AAP's expectation—that the series of freebies it had announced in its manifestos, apart from the existing ones, which amounted to more than 15 freebie schemes—would ensure that the voters would overlook its perceived failure in improving governance and the series of alleged corruption scandals its leaders were accused of, failed to materialize as it lost almost 10% vote share that it got in the last elections.

Among the AAP leaders who lost were its chief Arvind Kejriwal and his number two, Manish Sisodia.

The BJP, for the first time after losing in the 1998 elections, came to power, winning 48 seats, more than double the number that AAP won.

While the BJP will take two to three days to announce its Chief Minister, it is likely to be a toss-up between Parvesh Verma, Rekha Gupta (who won from Shalimar Bagh) and Ashish Sood (who won from the Janakpuri seat).

Parvesh Verma, because of his political background, his experience as a two-time Member of Parliament, and the fact that he defeated Arvind Kejriwal, is being seen as the strongest of all the contenders.

However, given Prime Minister Narendra Modi's and Home Minister Amit Shah's tendency to pick a "dark horse" as CM, as has been witnessed in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Haryana, it will not come as a surprise if someone other than Verma is made the CM.

Delhi will see a BJP CM take oath after October 1998, when the late Sushma Swaraj became Chief Minister, replacing Sahib Singh Verma, who had replaced Madan Lal Khurana, the first CM post the 1993 polls.