Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party is all set to govern the state of Delhi with the voters giving the party a clear mandate. As of 6 pm, the Aam Aadmi Party has reportedly been declared winner in 38 constituencies, while the Bharatiya Janata Party has won 3 seat. Furthermore, AAP is leading in 24 constituencies while the BJP takes the lead in 5 constituencies.
Overall, AAP is poised to win a clear majority with 62 seats, with the BJP as the main opposition with 8 seats, out of a 70-seat assembly.
According to the Election Commission, AAP and BJP have garnered around 54% and 39% vote share, respectively, while the Congress remains far behind with 4% vote share.
A Bitter Battle
The battle for Delhi was fought to the bitter end, with Home Minister Amit Shah taking charge of BJP's campaign and making several attempts at drawing Kejriwal out to choose sides on the ongoing protests against the amended Citizenship Act, at Jamia Millia Islamia University and Shaheen Bagh.
However, Kejriwal and other AAP leaders stayed mum on these issues throughout December and January. According to political analyst, AAP's silence on these matters were strategically aimed at avoiding the polarisation of their core voter base.
AAP's victory comes less than a year after it faced a resounding defeat to the BJP during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in all of 7 parliamentary constituencies.
As the results come out, hashtags related to the elections steal all other trends on Twitter to emerge as the most discussed topic of the day.
The Congress party, who drew a blank in 2015 elections, is poised to continue with zero seats in the Delhi Assembly. Speaking to news agency PTI, Congress leader and Punjab cabinet minister Sadhu Singh Dharamso said, "We were zero earlier, are zero now, so it's a BJP defeat not ours."
Several prominent political leaders, activists and strategists took to Twitter to congratulate Arvind Kejriwal and AAP on the massive victory.
Major battles
- Incumbent Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal leads comfortably with a margin of over 21697 votes in the New Delhi constituency against BJP's Sunil Yadav.
- Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia leads ahead of BJP's Ravi Negi by just over 3207 votes in the Patparganj constituency.
- In the Kalkaji constituency, AAP star campaigner Atishi leads by 11393 votes against BJP's Dharamveer Singh.
- AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha wins with a margin of 20058 votes against BJP's Sardar RP Singh in the Rajinder Nagar Constituency.
- BJP's Kapil Mishra loses to AAP's Akhilesh Pati Tripathi with a margin of 11133 votes in the Model Town constituency.
- With a margin of 36920 votes, AAP's Abdul Rehman is declared winner against BJP's Kaushar Kumar Mishra in the Seelampur constituency, which had a record turnout of over 70%.
- BJP Delhi spokesperson Tajinder Bagga loses to AAP's Raj Kumari Dhillon with a margin of 20131 votes.