The Bharatiya Janata Party led in 60 of the 70 Assembly segments that make up Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party in the remaining 10 and the Congress that ruled the Capital for 15 years did not manage to retain even a single segment in the Lok Sabha elections.
Figures released by the Delhi Election Commission on Saturday that breaks down the 2014 Lok Sabha poll results into assembly-segment-wise figures show a complete reversal of the situation seen after the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections.
While the tally then stood at 32 for the BJP (with the support of one Shiromani Akali Dal ally), 28 for the AAP and eight for the Congress with a lone Janata Dal (United) legislator and an Independent completing the seats for the 70-member House, the saffron party has since managed to increase its vote share by more than 13 per cent, recording substantial gains across the city.
Of the 28 Assembly constituencies from which AAP legislators were voted to the Delhi Assembly last year, the BJP candidates polled more votes than the AAP candidates in 24 of them in the Lok Sabha polls. In fact, the BJP has polled more votes in former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s New Delhi constituency and that of his entire Cabinet.
The BJP is ahead in Jangpura, Patparganj, Laxmi Nagar, Vikaspuri, Hari Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Rohini and among segments in the New Delhi area such as Karol Bagh, Patel Nagar and Kasturba Nagar.
It is not just the AAP that lost out, the Congress, too, yielded four segments to the BJP, and prominent among them is Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh’s Gandhi Nagar constituency in East Delhi. While Mr. Singh won by the highest margin among Congress candidates last December, the BJP polled 26,804 more votes in these elections over the Congress in this constituency.
The Muslim community, too, seems to have abandoned the Congress. In Okhla, the only segment in East Delhi where the AAP had an edge over the BJP, the AAP polled the highest despite the sitting Congress legislator Mohd. Asif. In the North-East parliamentary constituency’s Mustafabad, the Congress’ voters migrated to the BJP as they did in Chandni Chowk and Ballimaran.
With an overall vote share of 32.9 per cent, the AAP whose candidates trailed the BJP across the seven constituencies has nevertheless made significant gains among Muslim voters and retained its core-voter base in poorer sections of the city. In the four Assembly segments – Okhla, Seelampur, Sultanpur Majra (SC) and Badli – it has polled more votes than the Congress, whose legislators represent these constituencies in the Delhi Assembly.
The party polled higher than the BJP and the Congress in Matia Mahal and has recorded gains across Ballimaran, Gokulpur and Seelampur. Even in West Delhi, despite the BJP being ahead in all 10 segments, the AAP has recorded more than 30,000 votes in each Assembly segment. In the BJP stronghold of Kirari, the AAP polling more votes, could be an indication of its growing reach in Delhi’s unauthorised colonies.
Yet, it seems to have lost out on the middle and upper-class voters – be it in Greater Kailash in South Delhi or in several western pockets of New Delhi – who chose the party for the Assembly election, but decided to go with “Modi and the BJP” during the Lok Sabha elections.
