New Delhi, Feb 8 (NVI) BJP today reclaimed power in Delhi after a long wait of 27 years, removing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which had been ruling the city-state continously since 2013.
BJP had been out of power in Delhi since 1998 after it lost the Assembly elections to Congress party, which then held power consecutively till 2013 before AAP emerged on the scene as a new political party.
In the 70-member Delhi Assembly, the BJP today won and was leading at 48 constituencies, 13 more than the half-way majority mark.
AAP, which had the sensational number of 63 seats in the outgoing Assembly, bagged only 22 seats this time.
Much of the dent in the votes of AAP was caused by Congress, which, however, was unable to bag any seat.
Interestingly, both AAP and Congress are part of a bloc called INDIA.
AAP founder-chief Arvind Kejriwal, who stormed to politics in 2013 riding on an ‘anti-corruption’ agitation, himself lost the election this time from the prestigious New Delhi Assembly constituency from where he had been elected thrice earlier.
Kejriwal lost by 4,089 votes as he got 25,999 votes while his rival from BJP Parvesh Verma got 30,088 votes.
He was the Chief Minister of Delhi from December 2013 to September 2024 before he was forced to resign from the post, ironically, in the wake of allegations of corruption against him and his government.
Months before the Assembly elections held on February 5, Kejriwal was arrested and spent some weeks in prison.
His Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia too spent 17 months in jail on charges of money laundering. His trial is continuing.
Contending that Kejriwal and other leaders were being hounded by the central BJP government in “false” cases, the AAP had projected this Assembly election as a referendum on its governance and their innocence.
The campaigning was very bitter, with both AAP and BJP levelling serious allegations against each other. (NVI)
