New Delhi, India – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party will take power in the country’s capital Delhi 27 years later, and will take the massive anti-BJP opposition to Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). I threw it away as a retreat.
Twelve years after his sensational power ride in the 2013 parliamentary elections behind the popular anti-corruption movement, his agent, Manish Sisodia, was constituent before vote counts close on Saturday. It was clear that he had lost it.
The AAP temporarily locked up party headquarters in central Delhi on Saturday afternoon, with celebrations occurring at a nearby BJP office, decorated with saffron party colors, party workers dancing and handing out sweets. “Development wins, good governance victory,” Modi writes in X.
Jana Shakti is the most important thing!
Development wins, and a good governance victory.
I bow to my dear sister and my brother in Delhi for this overwhelming and historical mission to @bjp4india. We are humbled and honored to receive these blessings.
It is our guarantee that we will leave no…
– Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 8, 2025
At the 70-seat rally in Delhi, the BJP had won 48 seats. The AAP tally has progressed from 63 seats that won in the 2020 election to 22 seats.
“What once began as a movement for people now fell into just a political party,” said Neeranjan Silker, a senior fellow at Delhi-based Centre for Policy Studies (CPR), referring to AAP. Ta. “Kejwal is probably the politician of today, and when his brilliance wears down, the core affiliation of voters is weakened.”
With over 33 million people living there and the national capital of New Delhi, Delhi is the heart of India’s political power. Despite the meteor political rise under Modi since 2014.
“Delhi is a mini India and has a significant population in different regions of the country. The BJP shows that he can win anything if he can win Delhi,” says political analyst Rashid Kidwai. He told Jazeera. “This turnaround is important because this victory is a micromanagement story of the BJP in the constituency, and they teach us something unparalleled.”
BJP’s ride to capital
Modi’s BJP suffered the humble moment left to govern with the support of local allies last June when the Hindu Nationalist Party lost its parliamentary majority in the national election.
Seven months later, the BJP has comfortably won three major state elections: Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi. There, it was expected to face a revival opposition, analysts told Al Jazeera, further strengthening their widening control over Indian politics.
“Since the (national) election, our party has reached out to grassroots workers who have worked so hard to ensure that the message of prosperity reaches all voters,” said the BJP national spokesman. , Zafar Islam told Al Jazeera. “This is a defeat of AAP’s arrogance and bad governance.”
The AAP has become known for its welfare programme, but the BJP doubled a similar promise in a campaign in Delhi that undertook the Hindu nationalist undertone. “Elections in India are very traded and voters want to know what they get to vote,” Kidwy said.
Delhi voters are also one of the most unequal things when it comes to differences between caste and class, Sarkar said. “It’s going to be hard to win an election unless you can at least get a portion of the entire population,” he said. The section of voters in the so-called “upper cap” which forms almost 40% of Delhi’s population flocked to the BJP, attracted by subsidies and development promises and desire for change. 10 years of AAP rules.
In preparation for the election, which voted nearly 9.5 million people on Wednesday, the BJP did not confirm that Kiddwai’s choice of Delhi’s prime minister was in favour of the party. “There was no disillusionment (about any candidate) among different castes and voters from other regions, and the suspense kept the stage even for them and benefited them.”
The Congress Party, India’s oldest party that leads the Indian Alliance of the state, has remained in the vicinity of the assembly for a while, failing to win one seat in the Delhi parliament election in the third election.
Clearly surprised by the results, Nivitamenon, professor of politics at the prestigious Jawaharlalneur University (JNU) in Delhi, said: They sew the system firmly. ”
“Message to Kejwal”
Before last year’s national election, Kejwal was arrested by Indian financial crime agencies on corruption. His deputy, Sisodia, spent 17 months at Tihar prison in Delhi on money laundering charges. His trial continues. And their two terms secured by the landslide victory were undermined by a continuous struggle with the Governor of the Central Bureau, appointed to the Central, to wrestletter more control in Delhi.
This time it was Kejwal’s turn for the humble moment when his party lost Delhi Congress to the BJP on Saturday morning. The AAP promoted the election as a referendum on its governance and promoted the leader’s innocence when they claimed it was a political revenge by the BJP.
“Now there was this imagination that Kejwal and AAP were also doing politics as usual. They are not even cleaner than other political parties,” said middle-class voters, “Kejwal’s tactics and the central government. I am disillusioned with the constant conflict.”
The BJP has won all seven Delhi seats in the past three parliamentary elections, but has not been able to beat voters in the parliamentary elections held every five years so far.
“A decade later there was a strong anti-first place (against AAP), which violated that image among middle-class voters, which caused a swing,” Sircar added. “And the BJP had an advantage over the perceived combat (opposite) Kejwal, who not only shouted fouls, but was a ‘hoologue’ and not playing governance. ”
Kejwal lost his seat in New Delhi constituency, a New Delhi constituency, and previously sought “social boycotts” of Muslims, but he cast more than 3,100 votes in New Delhi constituency. Sisodia also lost the Jangpura constituency in southeast Delhi to the BJP.
“That’s a clear message that things aren’t good for Kejwal because the parties that overtake all heavyweights mean that they can’t take power,” analyst Kidwye said.
Uncharacteristic territory
Silence fell on Saturday afternoon at the AAP party headquarters. Experts say the parties need to focus on picking up their pieces. “In Delhi, they have been in power since their inception, so they are in a difficult place. The parties are not facing obstacles to Delhi’s power,” said political commentator Rahul Verma. I did.
“Losing their national leadership is embarrassing and will suffocate the expansionist impulses that AAP had several years ago,” Verma said. . Currently, Kejwal’s party also governs neighbouring Punjab.
As Kejriwal left the upcoming rally, the table has been transformed into Delhi politics, experts said. This is an unchanging territory.
For over a decade, the BJP has maintained full control of the country’s parliament in New Delhi, but has always remained away from the power of the state. “Right now, the BJP has the same kind of centralization that Modi is selling: it’s what we call “double engine” campaign,” Sircar said.
However, he warned that the Saffron Party should be cautious, Delhi has changed since the BJP last won the assembly election in 1993. Silker said: . ”
