It is unlikely that anyone with as much as a fleeting interest in Delhi’s politics got much sleep last night. We certainly didn’t. The Newslaundry team was at the offices of the three major parties in the fray, even before counting offically began. Here’s what we saw, and how moods changed on ground, as the Aam Aadmi Party pulled off a Baazigar.

Congress headquarters, 24, Akbar Road.
At about 8.30 am, before Congress’ decimation became a reality, a crowd of party workers had gathered outside the party headquarters. Their demand was simple: “Congress bachao, Priyanka lao.”

Most party workers stated they were tired of “chaploosi” in the Congress and the coterie that surrounds Congress scion Rahul Gandhi. However, they didn’t feel the answer was to shun dynasty politics but to get another dynast in place: Priyanka Gandhi.

Besides the motley group of protesters, the Congress headquarters had about two to three Congress spokespersons braving the election results and news anchors.

Congress Delhi in-charge, PC Chacko, made a late entry once it was clear that the Congress wasn’t winning a single seat in the capital it had ruled for about 15 years. He braved questions graciously and stated that the Congress had gone into these elections with no organisational structure and plan. Big confession to make. He was quick to add though that the defeat was more humiliating for the BJP considering the money the party had spent in Delhi elections.

Ajay Maken arrived shortly after that to address a press conference only to resign as general secretary. Ever the loyalist, he shielded Rahul Gandhi from any blame and took full responsibility for the Delhi results.

Maken made a quick exit after announcing his resignation, leaving Congress workers to continue protesting against the current leadership. For now there’s no looking beyond the Gandhis.

BJP headquarters, 11, Ashoka Road

The mood at the BJP headquarters at Ashoka Road, without the top brass – which is in Gujarat for the wedding of Amit Shah’s son – was fairly neutral when counting began at 8 am. However, things turned sullen rather soon, with early trends indicating a formidable lead for AAP.

But no one could blame BJP for being bad hosts in the face of adversity. A generous breakfast spread, multiple sheds for television lives, TV screens – the BJP made sure that journalists, who had come in large numbers, were comfortable and well fed.

With each update suggesting an even bigger mandate for AAP, the party’s leaders kept a brave face. Shahnawaz Hussain, national spokesperson, philosophically affirmed that hope is what kept the world going.

Things, though, only moved downhill from there. At around 11 am, it was very clear that the situation was irredeemable for BJP. AAP had won and won big. With the gap between the party and AAP widening alarmingly, BJP spokespersons started to appear visibly flustered. Shazia Ilmi, who arrived late at the venue, was hounded by reporters immediately after she arrived. Ilmi seemed to be handling the pressure well, until she had a particularly rough skirmish with Shekhar Gupta, who was in the NDTV studio. Gupta called her a “defector”, to which she responded by calling him a “wheeler-dealer”. Ilmi was noticeably ruffled and Sambit Patra, BJP’s national spokesperson, had to come to her rescue and calm her down.

The general atmosphere, nonetheless, was quite relaxed. Most BJP leaders made light weather of the defeat, or at least pretended to.

  “You win some and you lose some; we will fight even harder the next time,” said Nalin Kohli, another one of the party’s spokespersons.

AAP office, 28/8, East Patel Nagar

The AAP office in Patel Nagar had a festive atmosphere to it. The exit polls and the early trends being reported meant that the road in front of the office was absolutely thronging with AAP volunteers and members: The AAP office, a three-story building, was packed to the brim. There was an attempt to control entry to the buidling but you could always muscle and jostle your way through. Many enthusiastic volunteers did just that. With good news trickling in, the mood inside the building was electric:

As counting wore on and it became clear that AAP was going to touch 60 seats, crowds of volunteers entered the building in an attempt to be part of the festivities – festivities that even extended into the balconies of the building: The real action was on the third floor of the building, where the man of the moment, Arvind Kejriwal, followed the ballot-counting on television, surrounded by party workers and friends.

  And if you thought that that room seems a little crowded, that wasn’t even the entire room:

There were more people to come as well. Spokespeople like Yogendra Yadav and Raghav Chadha arrived at the office as the day wore on and their entries were greeted with raucous cheers and applause:

As the numbers got increasingly better for the AAP and trends showed the party moving beyond 60 seats, shouts of “sattar, sattar” rang through the second floor where many volunteers and party spokespersosn were watching TV. While the younger members were visibly excited, older heads cautioned against getting carried away and there were repeated calls to “be humble” and keep their cool.

The largest cheer of all was reserved for when the news of Kiran Bedi’s loss from the Krishna Nagar constituency was finally announced.

Kejriwal himself  was more restrained, remaining generally stoic even if he did let his feelings come to the surface once in a while:

Written and compiled by: Ranjan Crasta, Arunabh Saikia & Manisha Pande
(With inputs from Abhinandan Sekhri)