Why Delhi rejected AAP’s combative campaign to vote for BJP

Delhi did not vote as aggressively as in 2014 or even 2019, as it did this time. The question was, did the Union Territory vote differently from the previous polls just in numbers or in spirit too? The answer has been found. Delhi’s vote this time is an endorsement of the actions taken by authorities against the Aam Aadmi Party and its leaders.

While the BJP citadels around Delhi in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab crumbled, the saffron party repeated its ‘sweeping performance’ of 2014 and 2019 in 2024 too, winning all seven seats. Arvind Kejriwal’s release from jail in the end bore no fruit as he failed to build an opinion in favour of his so-called ‘martyrdom’.

The Delhi chief minister’s aggressive campaign, on release on interim bail, started with the announcements of Kejriwal’s guarantees vis-à-vis the guarantees of the prime minister. Next, he blamed the BJP for planning his murder; it had no takers. Despite being in power in the national capital for the past 11 years and having contested three Lok Sabha polls, the AAP has once again failed to make a debut in the House of People from its home state.

It’s often said that Delhi is the barometer of the national mood, especially as reflected in the results of the Lok Sabha polls. Delhi has voted overwhelmingly for the party that scored handsomely nationally, as the trend shows in 1971, 1977, 1980, 1984, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019.

It has also mirrored the turmoil in national politics by dividing the share of seats between the rival candidates. This was best reflected in the turmoil of the 1990s, with the making and breaking of alliances in post-Mandal politics. In 1989, following the Bofors controversy, Congress could retain just two seats, whereas the BJP made a strong foray, winning four, with one going to its alliance partner Janata Dal.

In 1991, the Congress managed to win two seats, and the BJP won five. However, Congress added another seat when Lal Krishna Advani decided to vacate his New Delhi seat, and film star Rajesh Khanna won the seat in the bypoll in 1992. The political turmoil was again reflected in the 1996 polls, with the BJP winning five and the Congress just two.

The consolidation of the BJP in national politics started to reflect in the results in Delhi, with the party winning six seats in the 1998 polls. It improved its performance in the 1999 midterm polls, winning all seven seats. On both occasions, it helped Atal Bihari Vajpayee become the Prime Minister.

However, this time around, despite the visible turmoil and close contest in national politics, the party has voted overwhelmingly for the BJP. While the saffron party faced rejection on many seats in the neighbouring states, how could it come out with such a decisive result in its favour in Delhi? The answer is simple: the complete dismissal of the politics of mal-governance and corruption let loose by the Aam Aadmi Party government.

The 2024 Lok Sabha poll campaign in the national capital was cantankerous, focusing mostly on mudslinging. It was a campaign where the issues pertaining to Delhi were all lost in the bitter cacophony created by the Delhi chief minister playing the victim card.

In its hour of glory, having substantially strengthened its electoral sinews, the Congress leadership also must ponder the golden opportunity it missed to revive the party in the national capital. It committed two major mistakes: first, entering into an alliance with the AAP, and second, pushing Kanhaiya Kumar as the face of the party in the national capital.

In the run-up to the polls, the grand old party paid a very heavy price, with its state president, Arvinder Singh Lovely, along with senior leaders, including many former MLAs and ministers, protesting the alliance with the AAP, only to quit and join the BJP. The Congress leadership’s obsession with foisting Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj too proved to be counterproductive, as the cadres could never reconcile with the fact that the claims of established leaders were overlooked.

One would like to reiterate what one wrote in these very columns about a month ago: “The Congress in Delhi is going the way the party went in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, in his enthusiasm to build an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, may have inadvertently ended up playing the role that late veteran Sitaram Kesri played in the 1990s, making the Congress play second fiddle to an emerging political rival rather than counter it.”

Such a move destroyed the party in Uttar Pradesh once and for all. Hopefully, six months down the line, the Congress will realise its folly and fight the assembly polls with its own vigour and cadre rather than piggyride on a party enmeshed in corruption and depravity. It should also be realised that Kanhaiya Kumar could be a good rabble rouser, a duplicate for Arvind Kejriwal, but would never inspire the rank and file of the Congress workers.

The writer is an author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.