Modi-led BJP shocks Kejriwal's AAP in Delhi: From 8 seats in 2020 to a landslide in 2025

The Bharatiya Janata Party has made a remarkable comeback in Delhi, breaking Aam Aadmi Party’s 10-year-long juggernaut. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led party has clinched key assembly seats in the national capital, sending shockwaves to AAP.

As of 2 pm, the BJP is leading in 49 out of 70 seats while the Arvind Kejriwal-led party is ahead in 21. The party has also managed to wrestle out AAP bastions like New Delhi and Jangpura with their candidates Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia losing their respective constituencies.

Catch all the live updates on Delhi Assembly Election results here

For the BJP, this impending victory is not just about winning the Delhi race after 27 long years. It’s also about the quantitative win in the sense that from securing single-digit seats in 2020 to crossing the halfway mark, the party has come a long way.

More from India

Delhi Election Results: With just 2% more votes, BJP is winning 26 more seats than AAP Milkipur bypoll: BJP wins the only seat it lost in Ayodhya district in 2022, SP bites dust

A leap from 8 to 47

In the last Delhi Assembly elections, the BJP won a mere eight seats while AAP won 62, giving it a comfortable edge to form the government for the second time.

The national capital has never been under BJP rule except once, in 1993. That year, the party won 49 seats, and Congress secured 14. After 1998, the BJP’s track record witnessed a downfall that has not recovered until now.

In the 1998 assembly polls, the BJP won 15 seats against Congress’ 52 seats. The year 2003 saw some improvement in BJP’s performance as the party won 20 seats, up by five from the previous elections. Five years later, it won 23 seats and by the next assembly elections in 2013, AAP had made a debut in the Delhi polls. Since then, the BJP found a new rival in the form of Arvind Kejriwal and his party.

Quick Reads

View All

Rupee slips to new low at 91.7 against dollar as Greenland pits Europe against Trump

Mega monsoon sets India to record $18 bn fertiliser imports — another bumper crop year in sight?

The 2013 elections could have seen BJP’s resurgence but it fell short of crossing the majority mark of 36. The party won 31 seats while AAP won 28, which was also not enough to form the government. Kejriwal joined hands with Congress to secure a majority.

However, the allied government came with an expiration date of two years. In 2015, AAP broke away from the grand old party, elections were once again held and this time it was able to secure the majority on its own. AAP’s victory that year reduced BJP’s status to just three seats.

In 2020, AAP came to power once again by winning 62 seats while BJP could clinch only eight. Now, in 2025, the tables have turned for the PM Modi-led party and it seems to be back in its 90s glory.

What helped the BJP win?

The party has been insistent on creating a “double engine” government in most states and that seems to be on a roll in the national capital.

BJP’s campaign in Delhi spearheaded by PM Modi focussed on carrying forward its opponent AAP’s welfare policies, ending its “corruption” and heralding a “double engine development” in the city.

A horse-eye view of the prosperity of the middle class also helped the BJP win big in the national capital.