NEW DELHI: Of the 47 MLAs who entered the electoral race for another term in office, 26 faced defeat. While BJP maintained its 100% strike rate with all six MLAs repeating their last election’s success and comfortably winning their seats, the performance of AAP’s legislators from the seventh legislative assembly of 2020-25, who re-contested from the parent party or switched sides, largely remained sub-par.
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Facing a tough electoral battle after being in office for two consecutive terms, AAP repeated 36 of its 62 MLAs from the last term while giving tickets to some new faces and some former legislators who joined it before the polls. Of the 36, only 14 managed to retain their seats while 22 lost.
Some of the big names who lost included the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy CM Manish Sisodia, ministers in the outgoing govt, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Raghuvinder Shokeen, and Rakhi Birla. Sensing a strong anti-incumbency building up in some constituencies, AAP even changed the seats of Sisodia and Birla, but success still eluded them.
With just 22 seats in the 70-member legislative assembly, AAP will now have to sit in the opposition, with its dream run that started from the debut election of 2013 cut short. Despite being the second-largest party with 28 seats, AAP formed govt in 2013 with the outside support of Congress, which lasted for 49 days. It won a record number of 67 seats in 2015, followed by 62 in 2020.
Of the 14 outgoing MLAs who re-contested and won, included Atishi, Gopal Rai and Mukesh Kumar Ahlawat.
Of the five AAP MLAs who jumped ship much before the announcement of the polls and were given tickets by rival parties to contest, only two managed to win.
BJP fielded three of them – Kailash Gahlot, Raaj Kumar Anand, and Kartar Singh Tanwar – but only Gahlot and Tanwar got elected. Congress fielded two – Abdul Rehman and Dharampal Lakra – and both lost.
The Kejriwal-led party also fielded the family members of three outgoing legislators, of which just one – Aaley Mohammad Khan – scored a victory, but Krishna Nagar MLA SK Bagga’s son Vikas and Uttam Nagar legislator Naresh Balyan’s wife Pooja lost.
Of the eight MLAs it had in the last assembly, BJP repeated six and all of them were re-elected. Of the remaining two, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri successfully contested the Lok Sabha election in June last year and the seat remained vacant, while Anil Bajpai was denied the ticket.
While OP Sharma won his fourth consecutive election from Vishwas Nagar since 2013, this is going to be Mohan Singh Bisht’s sixth term in the Delhi assembly. Bisht won his first election in 1998, followed by 2003, 2008, 2013, and 2020. He changed his seat from Karawal Nagar to Mustafabad this time. Sharma and Vijender Gupta were elected even in 2015 when AAP won 67 seats.
In the new House, BJP will have 48 MLAs.