Delhi Chief Minister Atishi Singh managed to save her seat, even as AAP’s big four – Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Saurabh Bhardwaj and Satyender Jain – lost from their respective constituencies marking a humiliating loss for the 13-year-old party as Bharatiya Janta Party ended its nearly three decades old drought.
#WATCH | BJP candidate from New Delhi assembly constituency, Parvesh Verma shows victory sign as BJP is set to form government in Delhi pic.twitter.com/pPzFEQFAZq
— ANI (@ANI) February 8, 2025
Bhardwaj was the only serving minister in the Atishi’s cabinet who lost. While, the other cabinet ministers – Gopal Rai, Imran Hussain and Mukesh Ahlawat, recorded impressive victories. Kailash Gahlot, who earlier served as minister, but switched sides at the last moment to contest from BJP also won.
So, while Atishi’s cabinet managed to win on four out of five, the loss of Kejriwal and his close associates will rankle hard for the party. This indicated not only strong anti-incumbency against them but also the manner in which the BJP was able to contain their fight to stay relevant. Atishi’s win is the big saving grace for the party. She may become the leader of the opposition, if the party so desires.
Three out of the big four - Kejriwal, Sisodia and Jain, had spent months in jail on corruption charges. Jain was the brain behind many of the AAP’s welfare schemes, be it women and free electricity.
Probably, there is a message for AAP in the manner that some of its ministers survived but the key party leaders lost. What appears to have done in Kejriwal is anti-incumbency, the liquor scam, and Sheesh Mahal, coupled with the BJP’s aggressive push for social welfare schemes and the final gift for the alienated middle class with income tax bonanza.
Kejriwal lost from the New Delhi seat, with the BJP’s Pravesh Singh Verma making a stunning victory from the VIP seat. The difference in victory margin is less than the votes polled by the Congress candidate, Sandeep Dikshit, thus indicating Congress has dented Kejriwal’s chances.
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Sisodia’s decision to shift his constituency from Patparganj did not help him as veteran leader Tarwinder Marwah, who had won from the seat thrice as a Congress candidate but later shifted to the BJP, retained his pocket borough.
Bhardwaj lost from his pocket borough Greater Kailash seat to BJP’s Shikha Rai. Bhardwaj has been with Kejriwal since the anti-corruption movement.
As all of Kejriwal’s Big four contested from seats which had a mix of the middle class and the slums, it indicated that the BJP’s sops for the middle class particularly through the Union budget, and benefits for the marginalised and women made the difference, when coupled with the anti-incumbency. This has now cast doubts on the AAP’s political outreach not only in Delhi, but also in Punjab where it heads the government.
