The Assembly election for the National Capital Territory of Delhi will be held soon. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are the main contenders for power in NCT of Delhi in the forthcoming Assembly election. Like in multiple states, the Congress party is irrelevant to the NCT of Delhi.
The AAP is ruing the Union Territory for the last three terms in Delhi. In the last two assembly elections in NCT of Delhi, the AAP virtually annihilated the opposition parties. In the 2013 Assembly election, being the largest party, the BJP was set to form the government in Delhi, but the AAP and the Congress party shook hands to debar the BJP from power. In the the 2015 Assembly election in Delhi, the AAP won 67 seats, in 2020, it nearly maintained its tally and won 62 seats.
It is also surprising in Delhi that despite such performance in the Assembly election, the AAP has not even opened its account from Delhi in Lok Sabha until now. The AAP won the Assembly elections with a huge mandate, while the BJP similarly won the LS seats from Delhi. The electorates of Delhi preferred the AAP in the Assembly and the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections from the last three terms.
Considering the performance of the AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections in 2015 and 2020, it’s tough to assume that the AAP may be ousted from power. However, there is also the possibility that the BJP may return to power in Delhi. Just as the BJP has shown its rise and strength in many States, it can do the same in the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi. In Assam, the BJP won only five seats in the 2011 Assembly election, but in the 2016 Assembly election, the BJP won 60 seats for itself and formed a government with a clear majority of its alliance. Earlier, in the electoral history of the Assam Assembly, the BJP’s best performance was up to just ten seats. In Haryana, the BJP won 47 seats in 2014 and formed the government on its own in the 90-member Assembly. In its previous Assembly election of 2009, the BJP won only four seats. The BJP’s best performance in the electoral history of the Haryana assembly was up to just 16 seats.
The BJP’s journey in Tripura is a unique example in Indian politics. In the 60-member Assembly of Tripura, the BJP had a record of not winning even a single seat in the elections before 2018. In the elections till 2013, the BJP had a history of saving its deposit on just one Assembly seat of Kadamtala-Kurti. However, in the 2018 Assembly election, the BJP won 36 seats in Tripura and formed the government with a clear majority. In the 2023 Assembly elections, the BJP again formed the government with a clear majority. Therefore, we cannot ignore the outstanding results of the BJP in Delhi, either.
