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13 seats, lost chances: Could AAP-Congress have halted BJP’s Delhi election landslide?
Delhi Election Results: As the dust settles on Delhi Election 2025, the rivalry between AAP and Congress raises questions about a potential alliance. With combined votes potentially surpassing BJP's, analysts speculate on how a united front could have changed the election landscape.
Delhi Election Results: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal lost the New Delhi seat in the Delhi election 2025, the results of which were announced on February 8. The former chief minister, who had won the seat three times earlier, was defeated by Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma.
Verma, the former Member of Parliament (MP) of the BJP from West Delhi, got about 4,000 votes more than Kejriwal. Sandeep Dikshit, the Congress candidate for the seat, polled 4,568 votes. So, assuming Congress and the AAP contested elections together, Verma might as well have gotten fewer votes than the joint Congress-AAP candidate.
Remember, the Congress and AAP are partners in the INDIA bloc but rivals in Delhi and Punjab. The two parties contested the Lok Sabha Election 2024 for the 7 seats in the national capital together but took separate paths in the Delhi elections 2025.
AAP and Congress have a history of rivalry in Delhi. Negotiating seat-sharing often faces hurdles, especially with AAP's dominance in past Assembly elections. The Congress, despite its decline, still holds some influence because of its 15-year rule between 1998 and 2013.
13 seats, lost chances
New Delhi is not the only seat where Congress and AAP candidates have performed better together than the BJP candidate. In fact, there are about 13 seats where Congress got more votes than the victory margin.
In Jangpura, too, BJP’s Tarvinder Singh Marwah won, bagging 38,859 votes, and AAP’s Manish Sisodia finished second with 38,859 votes, losing by just 675 votes. Congress party's Farhad Suri got 7,350 votes.
In Greater Kailash, the BJP’s Shikha Roy won the seat with 3,188 votes, less than Congress’s Garvid Singhvi's 6,711 votes. AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj received 46,406 votes, giving the BJP candidate a tough fight.
In Kasturba Nagar seat, the BJP candidate Neeraj Basoya won over 11,000 votes. Congress party's Abhishek Dutt finished with about 27,000 votes while AAP's Ramesh Pahalwan finished third with 18, 617 votes. Clearly, AAP+Congress in Kasturba Nagar is more than BJP's votes, though the saffron party candidate won the seat.
AAP+ Congres > BJP
A united AAP-Congress front could have consolidated anti-BJP votes, preventing a split and making the contest more competitive, according to analysts.
Overall, the BJP has won 45.56 per cent vote share. The AAP has won 43.57 per cent while the Congress won 6.34 per cent vote share. Clearly, the AAP and Congress, together (about 50 per cent), have more votes than the BJP.
However, in terms of the number of seats, the BJP swept the Delhi Assembly Election 2025, winning 48 seats, while AAP won 22 seats. Congress drew a blank again.
In the last two elections, AAP scripted a landslide by winning 62 seats in 2020 and 67 seats in the 2015 assembly elections.
INDIA bloc issues
Many opposition leaders wished that AAP and Congress fought together in the Delhi Elections 2025.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, a senior leader of the National Conference, which is also part of the INDIA bloc, in a post on X, remarked, “fight among yourselves”. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that if the Congress and AAP had allied, the outcome might have been very different.
A few months before the Delhi assembly elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attended an Opposition rally in the national capital demanding the release of AAP chief and then Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal from jail.
On January 28, addressing a public meeting before the Delhi Elections 2025, Gandhi invoked ‘sheesh mahal’ – a phrase coined by the BJP to highlight the alleged overspending in the CM's bungalow to target AAP and Arvind Kejriwal.
A united AAP-Congress front could have consolidated anti-BJP votes, preventing a split and making the contest more competitive.
Key Takeaways
- The AAP and Congress, despite being part of the INDIA bloc, remain rivals in Delhi, complicating any potential seat-sharing.
- Data from past elections indicates that a joint AAP-Congress ticket could have outperformed BJP candidates in several constituencies.
- The BJP’s dominance in the Delhi Assembly continues to be a challenge for both AAP and Congress, who need to reassess their strategies.
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Business NewsElections13 seats, lost chances: Could AAP-Congress have halted BJP’s Delhi election landslide?
First Published:8 Feb 2025, 05:45 PM IST
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