How BJP won Delhi elections with its ‘Modi, Mahila and Middle-Class’ formula

The BJP has breached Kejri-wall. It is on the path to wining Delhi after dismantling the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP dominance in the country’s capital.

The win in Delhi is a huge bump for the BJP; it comes on the heels of its victory in Maharashtra. With a return to power in Delhi after more than 27 years, the BJP is also set to dominate North India — it has governments in Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and even Rajasthan.

Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh both lauded the BJP for its win in Delhi. The former said, “Delhiites have shown that the public cannot be misled by repeated false promises. The public has responded to the dirty Yamuna, dirty drinking water, broken roads, overflowing sewers and liquor shops open in every street with their votes.”

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Singh, on the other, said that the BJP win “is a triumph of faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.”

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But what exactly is the reason behind BJP’s performance in Delhi ? Did BJP’s M-M-M formula work?

We have the answer for you.

Modi, Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP from the front during the Delhi elections. He fiercely criticised Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP during the campaigning for the elections. The PM didn’t waste an opportunity to attack the AAP chief while being on the campaign run.

In early January, PM Modi said at an event, “The country knows it well that Modi never built a home for himself but has built more than four crore houses for the poor; ‘mai bhi koi sheeshmahal bana sakta tha’ (even I could have built a Sheeshmahal).” This was a direct reference to the controversy surrounding the phenomenal expenditures on the Delhi chief minister’s residence.

The PM also directed the ‘aapada’ jibe at Kejriwal and the party. “In the last 10 years, Delhi is surrounded by an ‘aapada’ (disaster). By keeping Anna Hazare at the front, a few ‘kattar beimaan’ (extremely dishonest) people have pushed Delhi towards ‘aapada’. ‘AAP aapada bankar Delhi par toot padi hai’ (AAP has descended as a calamity on Delhi).

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आप-दा जाएगी, भाजपा आएगी! pic.twitter.com/I4nY0wksfy

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 3, 2025

“That’s why the people of Delhi have launched a war against this disaster. Delhi is saying in unison, ‘A_apada ko nahi sahenge, badal kar rahenge_’… (Won’t tolerate the disaster, will change it),” PM Modi added.

Wooing the middle class

As part of their M-M-M strategy, the BJP also trained its guns on the middle class. The BJP made sure to woo this segment tirelessly by holding several outreach programmes, including RWA meetings.

At the fag-end of the Delhi election campaign, PM Modi announced that the Eighth Pay Commission would be constituted. This decision will most likely lead to an increase in salaries of nearly 50 lakh central government employees.

The BJP also announced that none of the ongoing schemes of the AAP government would be stopped if the party came to power. PM Modi, himself, made this announcement, which helped counter the AAP claim that the poor would lose out if the BJP was voted into power.

Perhaps, the biggest factor that helped the BJP in its wooing of the middle class was the announcement by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the Budget speech. She declared that individuals earning up to Rs 12 lakh per annum would be exempt from paying income tax.

Mahila matters

The BJP saw women voters as a huge target base ahead of the elections. In an attempt to woo the huge voter base, the BJP made big promises. In its manifesto, the BJP promised Rs 2,500 monthly aid for women, Rs 21,000 for pregnant women, and pensions for seniors, aiming to empower women.

While releasing its manifesto, BJP’s JP Nadda said, “The BJP’s resolution for a developed Delhi prioritises the empowerment of women and the welfare of senior citizens,” he said. “The BJP does what it says, while the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are known for their lies and betraying the public.”

And it seems that the wooing of the woman voter helped the BJP; a whopping 44.08 lakh women came out to vote.

Anti-incumbency

Besides the BJP’s M-M-M formula, the anti-incumbency sentiment played a crucial factor in swinging votes from the AAP to the BJP.

The AAP has been in power in Delhi continuously since 2015, which is a long time in politics. The AAP, however, was unable to fix some of Delhi’s most basic problems such as infrastructural issues as well as controlling pollution. The Kejriwal-led party maintained that it was the BJP at the Centre that was causing roadblock, but voters saw such claims to be mere excuses.

In the meantime, the BJP’s ‘double engine’ promise appealed to the masses and the results are a reflection of it.

Congress plays spoilsport

A huge factor that may have helped the BJP is the rift between the AAP and Congress, which are part of the INDI Alliance. With both parties going their own way, the anti-BJP vote got divided, benefiting neither of them and helping the BJP instead.

A simple example could be the New Delhi constituency from where Arvind Kejriwal was contesting the polls. Had the Congress and AAP decided to join hands, Kejriwal could have won the constituency as the votes, which went to Congress’ Sandeep Dikshit would have been routed towards the former Delhi CM.

In conclusion, it seems that the BJP hit all the right notes in Delhi, leading to a massive Kejri-fall.

With inputs from agencies