Delhi Elections 2025

The Delhi assembly election is expected to take place early next year, likely in February 2025. The election dates are yet to be officially announced by the Election Commission of India. The assembly election will see a triangular fight between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the opposition parties mainly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress .

The Delhi assembly consists of 70 seats, with a party requiring 35 seats to form the government. Delhi is considered a "half-state" because it is a Union Territory with an assembly, but does not have the same powers as other states

In the previous assembly elections held in 2020, AAP won an overwhelming majority by winning 62 out of 70 seats in the assembly of Delhi. The remaining eight seats were won by the BJP while the Congress did not win any seat.

Delhi has been witnessing a split voting pattern, as previously during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it had voted for BJP, while in the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections, it voted mainly for AAP.

Since 2014, the BJP has been winning all the Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, while the Congress and AAP have not been able to open their account.

However, during the assembly elections the case is different. During the 2015 assembly elections, the AAP won 67 seats, increasing its seats from 28 seats in 2013, and gaining a majority on its own. The BJP won there, from 32 seats held previously, and the Congress was reduced to zero from eight seats in 2013.

The Congress Party had previously governed Delhi before 2013, with the late Sheila Dikshit serving as the Chief Minister. Dixit was the longest CM for 15 years straight. Dixit was elected three times since 1998 and was the second woman Chief Minister after Sushma Swaraj of the BJP. The Congress has weakened over the years with the AAP gaining and the BJP becoming the main opposition party.

The AAP is led by Arvind Kejriwal, who was the former chief minister of Delhi. In 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested Kejriwal for alleged money laundering and the CM spent time in custody for more than 5 months. After his release on bail on September 16, 2024, Kejriwal resigned from his position as Chief Minister on September 17. Atishi Marlena was then appointed as the new Chief Minister on September 21, becoming the youngest CM in Delhi's history at 43. The AAP chief has stated that he will only return as CM after he receives the public mandate again.

AAP had performed badly in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with the BJP winning all the seven seats in Delhi. The party has been campaigning on issues such as education, health, subsidy on electricity, which had appealed to voters previously.

The AAP has announced its first list of 11 candidates, which includes - Brahma Singh Tanwar, BB Tyagi, Anil Jha, Veer Singh Dhingan, Sumesh Shokeen, and Chaudhry Zubair Ahmad to fight from constituencies like Chhatarpur, Laxmi Nagar. The BJP is also soon expected to release their first list of candidates, as the saffron party hopes to make a comeback.