The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday swept back to power in Delhi after 27 years by handing a severe drubbing to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the assembly elections.

Of the 70-member Delhi Assembly, the BJP which extensively campaigned in the capital under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi won 48 seats, while the AAP which was confident of retaining the power bagged 22 seats.

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This is the worst ever performance of the AAP since its electoral debut in Delhi in 2013. Among the bigwigs from the AAP who tasted defeat include its national convener and former chief minister Kejriwal, former Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and former Health Minister Satyendar Jain.

Notably, in the 2013 Assembly elections, the AAP, had won 28 seats and emerged as the second largest party. In the 2015 Assembly elections, the Kejriwal-led party had registered a landslide victory with 67 seats and had maintained the winning streak in 2020 polls with 62 seats.

Kejriwal, who has been representing the New Delhi constituency since 2013 after he defeated former Delhi Chief Minister and Congress veteran Sheila Dikshit, failed to retain his bastion. He was defeated by BJP’s Parvesh Verma, son of former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma.

Sisodia who moved to Jangpura Assembly constituency from Patparganj seat, was defeated by his rival BJP candidate Tarvinder Singh Marwah.

Similarly, in Greater Kailash, Bhardawaj suffered defeat at the hands of BJP nominee Shikha Roy, while Jain was defeated by BJP’s Karnail Singh.

In several Assembly seats including New Delhi and Jangpura Assembly seats, where the AAP bigwigs have to bite the dust, it seemed the votes garnered by the Congress candidates, indirectly benefited the BJP candidates.

However, Chief Minister Atishi managed to retain the Kalkaji Assembly seat, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai from Babarpur seat and Delhi Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain from Ballimaran seat.

Prominent among the winners from the BJP include Harish Khurana from Moti Nagar Assembly constituency, Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Kapil Mishra from Karawal Nagar, and Kailash Gahlot, who had parted ways from AAP prior to announcement of the elections from Bijwasan.

It may be mentioned that in the outgoing Assembly, BJP had eight MLAs.

The Congress which drew a blank in the last two Assembly elections, this election too failed to open its account, despite its aggressive campaign against the ruling AAP and BJP.