After a month of mud-slinging, campaigns, wild insinuations and poll promises, the Delhi elections are done. The results are simple enough: the BJP is back in Delhi after a 27-year vanvas.
As per the Election Commission website at 4.30 pm, the BJP is leading in 9 seats and has won 39 – a total of 48. The AAP is leading in 17 and won 5 – a total of 22. Meanwhile, the Congress is leading in zero seats and has won zero too.
For context, the single majority mark in the 70-seat assembly is 36. The win is monumental for the BJP which last won in Delhi in 1993, while the AAP was hoping to return to power for a third term.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated his party’s win on X, tweeting that it was the BJP’s “guarantee that we will leave no stone unturned in developing Delhi, improving the overall quality of life for the people and ensuring that Delhi has a prime role to play in building a Viksit Bharat”.
I am so proud of each and every @BJP4India Karyakarta, who has worked very hard, leading to this outstanding result. We will work even more vigorously and serve the wonderful people of Delhi.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 8, 2025
Among the big losses for the AAP is former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia conceding his defeat against Tarvinder Singh Marwah of the BJP in Jangpura. Sisodia, who lost by approximately 600 votes, told the media that “we all did hard work” and acknowledged his party workers and supporters.
But the huge loss is Arvind Kejriwal, who lost from the New Delhi seat to BJP’s Parvesh Verma. Verma told the media the “darkness went away, the sun rose, the lotus bloomed” with the election results.
Kejriwal conceded defeat in a video message on X, where he pledged to work as the opposition.
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 8, 2025
The small consolation, perhaps, for the AAP is Chief Minister Atishi seems to have retained her seat in Kalkaji against BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri.
For several weeks, Team Newslaundry has been on the ground, reporting on all the issues facing voters and all the pettiness played out by political parties. That done, we decided to decode the mandate too as the results trickled in today.
Manisha Pande and Atul Chaurasia were joined by our team of determined reporters – Shivnarayan, Basant, Sumedha, Anmol and Avdhesh – to unpack the results as they were declared. No ads, no shouting matches, just incisive analysis. Watch this video.
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