NEW DELHI: Twice in the past 10 years, Arvind Kejriwal‘s AAP halted BJP’s relentless victory march in head-to-head contests in Delhi, reversing 7-0 clean sweeps by the saffron juggernaut in the immediately preceding Lok Sabha polls to win thumping majorities in the assembly elections of 2015 and 2020. Will the script be repeated in 2025? Or have incumbency and charges of corruption dimmed Brand Kejriwal’s lustre enough to enable BJP to triumph in a state in which it last won a majority in an assembly election in 1993? The answer will become clear on February 8, when the results of what promises to be a bitter and high-voltage election will be announced.
Election Commission of India Tuesday released the poll schedule for Delhi, fixing Feb 5 as the polling date for over 1.55 crore eligible voters. Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the poll process has to be completed by Feb 10.
The outcome of the poll will be crucial for the three main players. Incumbent AAP is fighting to secure a third consecutive term in the city-state regarded as its bastion, but is looking more vulnerable here than it has in a long time. BJP dominates large swathes of India but has found success elusive for 26 years in the capital (it was voted out of office in 1998 and hasn’t run a state govt in Delhi since then). Congress dominated Delhi politics from 1998 to 2013, with Sheila Dikshit serving as three-term CM, but has seen its fortunes plummet since then and is now battling to regain its vote base from AAP in order to stay relevant.
While the election process will start from Jan 10 with notification of elections, the last date to file nominations is Jan 17. Nomination papers will be scrutinised on Jan 18, and candidates will be able to withdraw till January 20. The next 14 days, until the evening of Feb 3 when the silent period will begin, are expected to witness a blitzkrieg by candidates and parties vying for the attention and votes of the electorate.
Though poll dates were announced only on Tuesday, campaigning has effectively been going on for several months. In fact, a brief lull after the Lok Sabha polls gave way to hectic activity after AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal was released on bail. AAP has already announced its candidates for all 70 seats, Congress has declared 48 names, and BJ. And while AAP has been busy unveiling “guarantees” to different sections to woo voters, the other two have not been far behind.
In the 2020 polls, AAP got an impressive 53.6% of votes and won 62 of the 70 seats, while BJP managed to win the remaining eight, with a vote share of 38.5%. Congress barely managed to get 4.3% of votes and its column of seats remained empty. In the preceding election, AAP fared even better, winning 67 seats and 54.6% vote share. BJP polled 32.8% of votes and won three seats. Congress had a vote share of 9.7%, but none of its candidates could score a win.
Confident of repeating his success story, Kejriwal said the election was going to be a battle between “politics of work and politics of hurling abuses”. Calling party volunteers his greatest strength, Kejriwal urged them to rise with determination to “defeat the opposition’s machinery”.
Showcasing its work in healthcare, education, power, and women’s welfare as “transformative achievements”, senior AAP functionary and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia claimed, “Delhi will vote for a leader who has provided 24-hour electricity, ensured zero electricity bills, eased the lives of families with free pilgrimages, ensured free bus travel for women, and implemented welfare schemes with sincerity and integrity.”
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva expressed confidence that “lotus will bloom” in the capital and a “double-engine govt” will take charge. “Those who are inflating balloons of lies and attempting to exert political pressure by threatening election officials have now been silenced. People of Delhi are resolute in their determination to oust this corrupt and plundering AAPda govt,” Sachdeva said, adding that party volunteers were actively engaged in a door-to-door campaign across the city.
Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav claimed that the people of Delhi “desired” to see Congress back in govt and their dream would be “realised” soon. “The date has been announced for the end of the sins of corruption and misrule by AAP and BJP, to end the toxic, unbreathable air, rid Delhi of the mountains of garbage, purify the polluted Yamuna and free Delhi of crimes and lawlessness,” Yadav said.
Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal claimed on Feb 5, Delhi will get to make a decision on whether it wished to see “five more years of chaos and confrontation” between the state and Centre, or a “stable govt” that works solely for the people. “Under Congress, Delhi was transformed into a modern city that responded to 21st-century needs. Be it the world-class metro or the massive infrastructure that brought connectivity, Delhi had its golden period under Congress rule,” Venugopal said.
The number of eligible voters is likely to swell further with the Delhi election office still scrutinising more than five lakh new applications for the addition of names to the voters’ list. “It is a single-phase election… We have deliberately kept polling on a Wednesday so more people come out to vote…like we did in Maharashtra,” CEC Kumar said.
Of the 70 seats in Delhi, 58 are general and 12 reserved. Kumar said bypolls to two assembly constituencies – Milkipur in Uttar Pradesh and Erode in Tamil Nadu – will also be held according to the same schedule while two constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir – Budgam and Nagrota – will vote later due to current snowy conditions.
