This Week in Explainers: How BJP wrested power from AAP in Delhi

India is done with its first election of the year. Delhi voted this week to elect a new government, picking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to lead it for the next five years. The saffron party has registered a sweeping victory, returning to power in the national capital after 27 years.

For the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the defeat has come after 10 years of ruling Delhi. The loss was more pronounced as many of its top leaders including its supremo and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal could not retain their seats. Meanwhile, the Congress drew a blank like the previous two elections in Delhi.

In other news, United States President Donald Trump has sparked a trade war with China, which can have wider repercussions. For now, he has put a halt on tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico. This raises the question: Is India next on Trump’s list of tariffs?

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With Delhi in the bag, is North India now BJP’s political fortress? As Delhi gets ready to count votes today, a look at who stands where

Trump is fulfilling a big promise he made to his support base: mass deportations. Following the deportation of migrants to Guatemala, Peru and Honduras, a US military plane carrying Indian nationals, who were living illegally in America, landed in India. But what happened after they returned to their homeland?

Here’s all this and more in our weekly roundup of stories from India.

1. The BJP has marked a spectacular victory in Delhi, ending its curse of nearly three decades of being out of power in the national capital. The saffron party bagged 48 seats with a 45.56 per cent vote share. Its leaders trounced many AAP bigwigs, making the win sweeter for the BJP.

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The saffron party had mounted an aggressive campaign against the AAP, cornering it on corruption allegations. The win in Delhi comes on the heels of the BJP’s success in Haryana and Maharashtra. It has now consolidated its dominance in North India, with Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan already being led by the party.

As the BJP looks for its Delhi CM face, is the M-M-M formula the reason for its victory in the national capital? We explain in this story.

2. The AAP’s crushing defeat in Delhi was compounded by the loss of its top leaders at the hands of the BJP. Kejriwal, former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Satyendar Jain and Somnath Bharti are among the AAP bigwigs trounced by the BJP.

For Kejriwal, the Delhi election was a political and personal battle, which he dubbed his “agnipariksha”. This is the first time that Kejriwal lost from New Delhi, which he first won in 2013 by defeating the then CM Sheila Dikshit. Tasting loss after 12 years, what does his and his party’s future look like? Read our explainer to find out.

3. The BJP’s Parvesh Verma has emerged as a giant slayer by wresting the New Delhi seat from Kejriwal. He defeated the AAP chief by a margin of 4,089 votes. Congress’s Sandeep Dikshit stood third with 4,568 votes.

Son of former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, Parvesh Verma was denied a ticket by the BJP to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The saffron party had bigger plans for him and now he is among the frontrunners for the chief minister’s post. Here’s our profile of the BJP leader.

4. US President Donald Trump signed an order to put tariffs on products from the country’s three leading trading partners Canada, China and Mexico. While tariffs on Canada and Mexico have been paused after talks with their leaders, Trump’s 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods came into effect earlier this week.

This has raised fears about whether India could be his next target. The Republican has earlier referred to India as a “very big abuser” in terms of import tariffs. New Delhi is working hard to avoid being on Trump’s tariff hit list. But can India avoid the trade war? We explore in this story.

The US has deported 104 Indian nationals who had illegally arrived in America. A US military plane carrying these immigrants landed in Punjab’s Amritsar amid Trump’s crackdown on immigration. The passengers on the C-17 aircraft included Indian nationals from Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Chandigarh.

This is the first time that the US has deployed military aircraft to deport undocumented immigrants. As per reports, the US plans to deport some 18,000 illegal Indian migrants. Now, that it has sent back the first batch of deportees since Trump came to power, what happened after they arrived? Here’s our explainer on this.

Karnataka has taken a ‘historic’ decision to facilitate the right to die with dignity, complying with the Supreme Court’s 2023 order. The Siddaramaiah-led government has called for establishing medical boards in hospitals across the state to ensure the right to die with dignity for terminally ill patients. Karnataka is now among a handful of states in India to comply with the apex court order on living wills.

My Karnataka Health Department, @DHFWKA, passes a historic order to implement the Supreme Court’s directive for a patients Right to Die with dignity.

This will immensely benefit those who are terminally ill with no hope of
recovery, or are in a persistent vegetative state, and… pic.twitter.com/UxN2zMdN1c

— Dinesh Gundu Rao/ದಿನೇಶ್ ಗುಂಡೂರಾವ್ (@dineshgrao) January 31, 2025

The Supreme Court in its 2023 order simplified guidelines for making living wills. A living will is a legal document that can be made by people aged 18 or above that allows them to choose the medical care they want if they become terminally ill or develop a condition with no hope of recovery and cannot make decisions for themselves. So, what is Karnataka’s order on living wills? Read our story to find out.

A mystery person is set to receive one-third of Ratan Tata’s residual assets. Mohini Mohan Dutta, a former Tata group employee, is one of the beneficiaries of the business tycoon’s will.

Reports say Dutta could get over Rs 500 crore of Tata’s wealth. The development has stunned the inner circle of the former Tata Group chairman. But who is Mohini Mohan Dutta to whom Tata has reportedly bequeathed a third of his residual estate? We reveal in this story.

Some business leaders, including in India, have been espousing longer work hours, sparking backlash. Studies have shown that working for extended hours does not mean increased productivity and instead hampers the health of the employees, but calls for increasing the maximum working hours keep surfacing.

Does the Indian government have any such plans? It has finally made its stance clear. Read our article to find out.

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