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NUMBER GAME: There are nearly a dozen seats where the BJP’s victory margin over the AAP is less than the number of votes polled by the Congress on that seat
The AAP may well have an axe to grind with the Congress. (File image)
The Congress could not win any seat in Delhi elections, but added nearly two lakh votes to its tally from 2020, which interestingly was almost the same number of votes that proved to be the difference between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the polls.
So did the Congress effectively cost the AAP in these elections?
Sample this. As per the data from the Election Commission of India (ECI), the BJP polled 43.23 lakh votes this time, while the AAP polled 41.33 lakh votes. The difference hence between both the camps is just around two lakh votes, and it translated into a big difference in seats as the BJP won 48 and the AAP got 22 seats.
This time, the Congress has got nearly 6 lakh votes which means its vote share grew by around 2% this time. Incidentally, the difference in vote share between the BJP and AAP this time is also around 2%. This could imply that the Congress grew at the expense of the AAP.
दिल्ली का जनादेश हम विनम्रता से स्वीकार करते हैं।प्रदेश के सभी कांग्रेस कार्यकर्ताओं को उनके समर्पण और सभी मतदाताओं को उनके समर्थन के लिए दिल से धन्यवाद।
प्रदूषण, महंगाई और भ्रष्टाचार के विरुद्ध – दिल्ली की प्रगति और दिल्लीवासियों के अधिकारों की यह लड़ाई जारी रहेगी।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 8, 2025
NUMBER GAME & SWEET REVENGE
There are nearly a dozen seats where the BJP’s victory margin over the AAP is less than the number of votes polled by the Congress in that seat.
Take the New Delhi seat for example. Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma has defeated Arvind Kejriwal by 4,089 votes, while Sandeep Dikshit of the Congress polled 4,568 votes. This was also sweet revenge for Dikshit as despite his loss, he ensured the defeat of Kejriwal who had defeated his mother Sheila Dikshit from this seat in 2013.
The 2025 Delhi Vidhan Sabha election results reflect nothing more than a referendum on Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party. After all, at the height of the PM’s popularity in 2015 and 2020, AAP had won decisively in Delhi. This shows that, rather than being vindication of the…— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) February 8, 2025
In Chhatarpur, Kartar Singh Tanwar of the BJP won by 6,239 votes against the AAP candidate, while the Congress candidate polled 6,601 votes. In Jungpura, Manish Sisodia of the AAP lost to the BJP by just 675 votes, while the Congress candidate polled 7,350 votes. In Badli, Congress state chief Devendra Yadav polled 41,071 votes to finish third, but invariably helped the BJP win the seat from the AAP by a margin on 15,000-odd votes. In Greater Kailash, Saurabh Bhardwaj lost by about 3,188 votes, while the Congress candidate got 6,711 votes.
The caveat in electoral politics is that it is not necessary that people who voted for a Congress candidate would have voted for the AAP if the Congress was not in the fray or was in alliance with AAP. Also, in many seats, the BJP has defeated the AAP on its own might rather than needing help from the Congress to split the seats.
However, the AAP may well have an axe to grind with the Congress as the difference between their victory and defeat, both in the number of total votes and vote share, is identical to the small rise made by the Congress this time.
