Arvind Kejriwal Loses New Delhi Seat As AAP Heads For Rout
New Delhi:
Arvind Kejriwal has lost his re-election bid from the New Delhi seat to former two-time BJP MP Parvesh Verma, whom the party had held back from contesting last year’s Lok Sabha election.
Mr Kejriwal finished around 1,200 votes behind his rival, with the Congress’ Sandeep Dikshit third, a set of results that will also reignite talk over the rift between the two parties – both members of the stuttering INDIA bloc – and if an alliance may have allowed the AAP boss to retain his seat if not his government.
Meanwhile, Mr Verma, hailed as a ‘giant-slayer’ and potential future Chief Minister, following in the footsteps of his father, Sahib Singh Verma, is expected to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Speaking to reporters after his win, he thanked the New Delhi constituency voters and spoke of a ‘double engine’ government in the city, referring to the BJP in power at the centre and in Delhi.
Arvind Kejriwal has held the New Delhi seat since 2013, when he beat Congress stalwart and then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to herald what would be the AAP’s decade-long rule of Delhi.
The AAP boss’ defeat – announced minutes after his former deputy, Manish Sisodia, surrendered his contest in Janpgura – underlined the scale of his party’s rout in this election.
Delhi Election Results LIVE | Manish Sisodia Concedes, Loses From Jangpura
Bidding for a third consecutive term, Mr Kejriwal and the AAP are, instead, set for a humiliating defeat; at 1pm, the BJP was leading in 48 of Delhi’s 70 Assembly seats and the AAP in 22.
Instead, defeat for Mr Kejriwal is seen as the ‘end’ of the AAP, particularly since two of its three most high-profile leaders – Mr Kejriwal and Mr Sisodia – facing corruption charges in the liquor policy scam.
There was some good news though, as Chief Minister Atishi beat the BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri.
Back to Mr Kejriwal, though, and the AAP leader’s defeat prompted recirculation online of a 2023 video, in which the ex-Chief Minister declared “you (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) will have to take another birth to defeat us in Delhi”. “I want to tell Narendra Modiji that you cannot defeat us in this life,” he said.
Coming into this election, Mr Kejriwal was battling a image crisis fueled by his alleged involvement in the liquor excise policy scam, and also repeated attacks from the BJP (and the Congress, an on-paper ally) on various issues, from Delhi’s crumbling infrastructure to the Yamuna water row.
Political analysts told NDTV the AAP’s big loss could also be pegged on the switch in women and middle-class voters from Mr Kejriwal’s side to the BJP.
READ | ‘Mahila’, Middle-Class Pivots From AAP, Strengthen BJP’s Hand
Women were recognised as a potential key vote base early in the build-up to this election, with the AAP and BJP making special provisions for them in their manifestos. Middle-class voters’ jump came on the back of that big-ticket announcement in the Union Budget 2025, in which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hiked the personal income tax rebate ceiling from Rs 7 lakh to Rs 12 lakh.
