While Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) suffered heartbreak on the counting day of the Delhi assembly polls 2025, some consolation has come its way from the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and those dominated by the Muslim voters.
Out of 7 Assembly seats in Delhi where Muslims comprise a major chunk of voters, AAP won six, while the remaining one going to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). While senior AAP leader Gopal Rai won from Babarpur, the party also retained Okhla, which houses Shaheen Bagh that saw widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2020.
AAP had won all seven seats in 2020.
Interestingly, while Congress’ poll campaign was majorly targeted at the Muslim-dominated constituencies, it came third in every seat except two – Okhla and Mustafabad, where it finished a distant fourth.
The grand old party suffered a similar drubbing in the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes, where eight out of 12 seats have been won by AAP, with BJP winning the remaining 4. Bahujan Samaj Party, which had fielded candidates on all 70 seats, didn’t feature in the top three in any of the reserved seats, hinting all might be done and dusted for the party in Delhi.
While the Dalits account for 16.5% of Delhi's population, making it the second biggest voting bloc after the upper castes, Muslims account for 13% of the voters in the national capital, making them the deciding factors in many seats. Both had traditionally been Congress supporters until 2013 when they threw their weight behind the Aam Aadmi Party, which has yet again been able to perform well in these key seats.
ALSO READ | Delhi Election Results 2025: Who are the top contenders in BJP for CM post?
However, the BJP, which has traditionally struggled to make inroads into the two sections, has faired well, especially with its dedicated outreach in the slums, which house a sizeable chunk of SC voters. While freebies rained during these elections, the basic issues of water, sanitation, and housing remained.
The AAP, which reined throughout the past decade with landslide wins in 2015 and 2020, has suffered a major drubbing this election, with top party leaders including Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, and Satyendra Jain losing in key constituencies, paving the way for BJP’s rule in the national capital after 27 years.
