Why Modi’s BJP has raced ahead of Kejriwal’s AAP in the battle for Delhi
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In the battle between former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s suvidha (benefits) model and prime minister Narendra Modi’s vikas (development) model, the voter in the national capital has delivered a decisive verdict in favour of the latter. Ending a long, 27-year wait, the BJP has secured a comfortable win with 48 of the 70 assembly seats—an enormous leap from the mere eight it held previously.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has suffered a stunning collapse, plummeting from 62 seats to just 22. Read this | The battle for Delhi: It is Kejriwal’s suvidha vs Modi’s vikas Adding insult to injury for the AAP, Arvind Kejriwal lost his seat—the New Delhi constituency—to BJP’s Parvesh Sahib Singh, while former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia lost in Jangpura. This election was a contest between two distinct narratives—there was the AAP’s big social welfare, freebie push, which has a fan base among the economically disadvantaged sections, and then there was the development model the BJP under Modi has espoused and which has been the prime minister’s hallmark since he emerged as a national force in 2013.
In fact, the prime minister’s pre-election launch of multiple infrastructure projects in Delhi underscored this approach. In the end, the Delhi voter called out AAP for the glaring gap in its governance model — a complete lack of focus on infrastructure and a lopsided focus on doles. Yet, despite its dramatic fall, AAP’s vote share remains significant, reflecting its continued appeal among economically and socially weaker sections of Delhi’s electorate.
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