Delhi Election Results: Modi’s ‘Aap-da’ spells Kejriwal’s nemesis – 5 reasons behind AAP’s capital collapse

Delhi Election Results: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has returned to power in Delhi after about three decades. The saffron party has won 48 seats, as against the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) 22 seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly. The Congress party won none. 

Saturday's result is Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP's worst performance in the national capital in last three elections. The AAP won the last two elections with a landslide bagging 62 seats in 2020 and 67 seats in 2015 assembly election. In 2013, AAP's first election, the party bagged 28 seats.

The results mark the BJP's comeback in the national capital after 27 years. The party has not been in power in Delhi since 1998. In the 2020 election, the BJP won 8 seats, while it got 3 seats in the 2015 election. In 2013, the BJP had won 32 seats in the Delhi Assembly.

Here are five reasons reasons behind AAP's capital debacle:

Modi's 'Aap-da'

The AAP has been in power in Delhi since 2015. The government's focus in the last ten years has been the health and education sectors and subsidies on electricity and water. The BJP has maintained a constant vote share of about 30 per cent in  many years, yet it won just 8 seats in the last elections and 3 seats in 2015.

The AAP fought the Assembly Election 2025 with an anti-incumbency of ten years and an aggressive BJP. During the BJP's campaign, Modi coined the term ‘Aap-da’ to target the Delhi's ruling party. Aap-da, which translates to ‘destruction’, is an effort to highlight AAP's ‘failure’ to govern Delhi in its two terms.

Liquor Policy scam to ‘Sheesh Mahal’

The Delhi Election 2025 was billed as the ‘toughest’ fight for the AAP, especially after the crisis it faced in the last two years. 

Almost the entire top leadership found itself in the middle of investigations by central investigation agencies over corruption allegations around the alleged Delhi Liquor Policy scam.

In the run-up to the Delhi Election 2025, the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also highlighted the alleged ‘lavish spending’ in the 6 Flagstaff Road bungalow—'Sheesh Mahal'— where Kejriwal lived until he was chief minister before stepping down in September last year.

Fear-mongering

Arvind Kejriwal and AAP warned voters that the BJP would stop its government's welfare scheme. The BJP countered by denying Kejriwal's claims and instead promising to continue all the existing schemes more transparently.

Towards the last leg of the campaign, the AAP also alleged that Haryana, where the BJP was in power, was poisoning the Yamuna, which supplies water to Delhi. According to political analysts, this fear-mongering seemingly backfired and helped the BJP instead.

The Women Voters

In one of the key promises, AAP said it would give ₹2,100 to women every month if it comes back to power. In 2023, AAP had promised ₹1000 in the same scheme but could not deliver it. The AAP government in Punjab also promised a similar scheme but did not deliver.

The BJP, on the other hand, has delivered women-centric cash schemes in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, where it has been in power. “ Government's do not promise. Government's give,” said Amitabh Tiwari, a political analyst.

INDIA bloc Contradictions

The AAP and Congress are partners in the INDIA bloc but rivals in Punjab and Haryana. 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.

The two parties contested the Lok Sabha Election 2024 together. On January 28, a week before the Delhi polls, Rahul launched a scathing attack on Kejriwal and his party colleague Manish Sisodia, accusing the two of being the ‘architects’ of the alleged Delhi liquor scam.

Gandhi, addressing a public meeting before theDelhi Elections 2025, also 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.

In Saturday's result, the BJP won at least 13 seats, and the victory margin was less than the number of votes the Congress party got.