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The Delhi Assembly election results have thrown up a parallel from 2013 and it involves parties that were dislodged from power.
Like the Congress that found itself out of power after governing the national capital for over a decade, the AAP on Saturday saw itself reduced to more or less the same regions of Delhi where the Congress did well in the 2013 polls, the last time it managed to open its account in the national capital.
In 2013, the Congress won a majority of its seats in Central and Northeast Delhi, two of the regions where the AAP did well this time along with South Delhi. Back then, the Congress won eight seats of which three were in northeast Delhi and two in central Delhi where Muslims and the economically backward form a sizeable population.
The 2013 election that saw the AAP make its debut saw a hung Assembly, It was the last time the capital saw a three-way fight, with the BJP securing 34.12% votes, the AAP getting 29.64%, and the Congress 24.67%. The BJP won 32 seats, and the AAP 28 seats, while the Congress eight. Mayawati’s BSP won two seats.
The Assembly elections two years later saw the AAP winning 62 seats and the BJP eight with the Congress drawing a blank for the first time in Delhi and its vote share being reduced to 14.9%.
In 2020, the AAP won 67 seats and the BJP three seats with the Congress drawing a blank for the second time with its vote share falling to 4.26%.
Of the eight seats the Congress won in 2013, the AAP has this time won five.
In 2013, the Congress won Badli (north), Sultanpur Majra (north), Chandni Chowk (central), Ballimaran (Central), Okhla (southeast), Gandhi Nagar (northeast), Seelampur (northeast), and Mustafabad (northeast). Twelve years later, out of the eight, the AAP has won Sultanpur Majra, Chandni Chowk, Ballimaran, Okhla, and Seelampur. Barring Okhla, which is in southeast Delhi, four seats are in central and northeast Delhi. In these polls, the BJP has won Badli (north), Mustafabad (northeast), and Gandhi Nagar (northeast).
The northeast and central Delhi regions have a sizeable population of Muslims and those belonging to economically backward sections of society, a voter base that was once with the Congress and has now shifted to the AAP.
