‘BJP has system sewn up’: Kejriwal’s AAP loses Delhi in meeting elections

New Delhi, India – Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP), have stunningly misplaced the Delhi meeting election in a significant turnaround for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) which is now poised to manipulate the capital once more after 27 years.

Twelve years since its sensational trip to energy within the 1993 meeting elections on the again of a preferred anticorruption motion, it was clear Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, his deputy, had misplaced their constituencies effectively earlier than vote counting had completed on Saturday.

The AAP quickly locked down its occasion headquarters in Lutyens’ Delhi on Saturday afternoon as celebrations broke out on the close by BJP workplaces, adorned within the occasion color of saffron, with occasion staff dancing and distributing sweets. “Growth wins, good governance triumphs,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X.

Jana Shakti is paramount!

Growth wins, good governance triumphs.

I bow to my pricey sisters and brothers of Delhi for this resounding and historic mandate to @BJP4India. We’re humbled and honoured to obtain these blessings.

It’s our assure that we’ll depart no…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 8, 2025

Within the 70-seat meeting in Delhi, the BJP had crossed the bulk mark of 35 seats by Saturday afternoon, profitable greater than 48 seats by the afternoon. The AAP tally went from the 63 seats it received within the 2020 election to 22 seats as counting was nonetheless persevering with within the afternoon.

“What as soon as began as a individuals’s motion had now fizzled right into a mere political occasion,” mentioned Neelanjan Sircar, a senior fellow on the Delhi-based Centre for Coverage Analysis (CPR), referring to the AAP. “Kejriwal is probably only a politician now and as soon as that shine wears off, the core voters’ affiliation is weakened.”

Delhi, the place greater than 33 million individuals dwell and the nationwide capital metropolis, New Delhi, is positioned, is the centre of political energy in India – and one which till now has remained out of the grip of the BJP regardless of its meteoric political rise beneath Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2014.

“Delhi is a mini India, it has a considerable inhabitants from numerous areas of the nation – and the BJP has proven that if they’ll win Delhi, they’ll win something,” Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst, informed Al Jazeera. “This turnaround is critical as a result of this victory is a narrative of BJP’s micromanagement in constituencies. And tells us that they’re unmatched.”

BJP’s trip to the capital

Modi’s BJP suffered a humbling second in June final 12 months when the Hindu nationalist occasion misplaced its parliamentary majority within the nationwide election and was left to manipulate with the assist of regional allies.

Seven months later, the BJP has comfortably received three main state elections – Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi – the place it was anticipated to face a resurging opposition, analysts informed Al Jazeera, additional cementing its increasing management over Indian polity.

“For the reason that [national] election, our occasion has been reaching out to our grassroots staff, who’ve labored laborious, to make sure that the message of prosperity reaches each voter,” Zafar Islam, BJP’s nationwide spokesperson, informed Al Jazeera. “This can be a defeat of the AAP’s vanity and dangerous governance.”

Whereas the AAP had come to be recognized for its welfare programmes, the BJP doubled down on related guarantees in its marketing campaign which additionally took on a Hindu nationalist undertone in Delhi. “Elections in India have turn out to be extremely transactional and the voter needs to know what’s going to they get for his or her vote,” mentioned Kidwai.

Delhi’s voters can be among the many most unequal, with regard to caste and sophistication variations, mentioned Sircar. “Except you’re in a position to get not less than some bits and items of all of the inhabitants, it’s going to be laborious to win the election,” he mentioned. A piece of so-called “upper-caste” voters, which type almost 40 p.c of Delhi’s inhabitants, he added, had flocked throughout to the BJP, attracted by guarantees of subsidies and growth in addition to a need for change following greater than a decade of AAP rule.

Within the run-up to the election, by which almost 9.5 million individuals voted on Wednesday, the BJP didn’t affirm its decide for chief minister for Delhi, which Kidwai mentioned, labored within the occasion’s favour. “There was no disillusionment [about any one candidate] among the many totally different castes or voters from different areas and the suspense saved the stage even for them and rolled to their benefit.”

The Congress occasion, India’s oldest occasion, which leads the nationwide opposition, INDIA alliance, has remained on the periphery within the meeting for a while and, this time, didn’t win a single seat within the Delhi meeting election.

Clearly shocked by the outcomes, Nivedita Menon, a professor of politics at Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru College (JNU), mentioned: “It appears like BJP won’t ever lose an election once more. They’ve the system sewn up tight.”

‘Message for Kejriwal’

Earlier than the nationwide election final 12 months, Kejriwal was arrested by India’s monetary crime company on corruption fees. His deputy, Sisodia, has spent 17 months in Tihar jail, Delhi, on fees of cash laundering. His trial is continuous. And their two phrases, secured by landslide victories, had been marred by the continual tussle with the centre-appointed lieutenant governor to wrestle extra management over Delhi.

This time, it was Kejriwal’s flip for a humbling second when, on Saturday morning, his occasion misplaced the Delhi meeting to the BJP. The AAP had touted the election as a referendum on its governance, and its leaders’ innocence within the instances they declare are political vendetta by the BJP.

“There was now this creativeness that Kejriwal and AAP additionally do politics as typical – and they don’t seem to be cleaner than different events,” mentioned Sircar, including that middle-class voters appeared “disillusioned with Kejriwal’s ways and fixed confrontation with the central authorities”.

The BJP has received all seven of Delhi’s seats within the final three parliamentary elections however had till now didn’t win the voters within the meeting election, which is held each 5 years.

“There was robust anti-incumbency [against the AAP] after a decade and that damage its picture amongst middle-class voters, which resulted within the swing,” Sircar added. “And the BJP had an edge within the notion battle [against] Kejriwal – that he simply cries foul, or he’s a ‘hoax’, and doesn’t carry out in governance.”

Kejriwal misplaced his meeting seat, the New Delhi constituency, to BJP’s Parvesh Verma – who has known as for a “social boycott” of Muslims – by greater than 3,100 votes within the New Delhi constituency. Sisodia, his deputy, additionally misplaced the Jangpura constituency in southeast Delhi to the BJP. As counting continued into the night on Saturday, A number of different widespread leaders of the occasion had been trailing behind however had not but been pressured to concede.

“That may be a clear message that issues weren’t good for Kejriwal as a result of any political occasion that has all heavyweights trailing means there is no such thing as a means they may come to energy,” mentioned Kidwai, the analyst.

Unchartered territory

On Saturday afternoon, silence fell over the AAP’s occasion headquarters. Consultants say the occasion now must deal with selecting up the items. “It’ll put them in a tough spot as a result of in Delhi they’ve been in energy since their inception. The occasion has not confronted a day out of energy in Delhi,” mentioned Rahul Verma, a political commentator.

“Their nationwide leaders dropping is a humiliation and can choke the expansionist impulse, which AAP had a few years in the past,” mentioned Verma, referring to the opposite Indian state elections the place the AAP has been competing, equivalent to Gujrat, and Jammu and Kashmir. At the moment, Kejriwal’s occasion additionally governs the neighbouring state of Punjab.

With Kejriwal out of the upcoming meeting, the tables have turned in Delhi politics, consultants mentioned. That is unchartered territory.

For greater than 10 years, the BJP has maintained full management over the nation’s parliament, positioned in New Delhi, however all the time remained at a distance from state powers. “The BJP now has the identical form of centralisation that Modi has been peddling, the so-called ‘double engine’ marketing campaign,” mentioned Sircar.

However the saffron occasion must be cautious, he warned, as Delhi has modified because the BJP final received the meeting election in 1993. Sircar mentioned: “The BJP has not ruled Delhi that appears like this or appears like this – a contemporary cosmopolitan creativeness.”