Delhi was a crucial election for the Aam Aadmi Party, which hoped to return for a third term. But the party suffered a debilitating loss on Saturday, earning only 22 seats in the 70-seat Delhi assembly while the BJP got 48. The Congress and other parties got none at all.  

Editorials after the results tried to unpick what this loss means for Arvind Kejriwal’s party. 

The Indian Express said the AAP’s “dramatic defeat in Delhi now means that it has lost its footing on its home ground”, since its model has only worked otherwise in Punjab. And so, the editorial said, the AAP must ask “why it surrendered its magnificent opportunity” despite formidable odds.

“The early successes in the government school and mohalla clinic were routinised and, in its second term, they have been facing questions of patchy quality. Then there were the problems and issues of a rapidly growing metropolis on which the AAP government was seen to be neglectful, inattentive, or just throwing up its hands helplessly…” the editorial said. “The AAP was simply not seen as a party that could address questions of the growing wear and tear of the infrastructure and services of a layered city, to which people flock in search of a better future from across the country.”

The Hindu, in an editorial headlined “Common man’s revenge”, pointed out that while the AAP’s rise was “rooted in its appeal to Delhi’s middle class”, “its governance style soon became synonymous with reckless populism, a cynical approach to politics, and an increasingly coarse political discourse”.

“While it sought to consolidate power through unchecked welfarism, the effectiveness of governance declined, and its credibility began to erode,” the editorial said. “The final blow came when serious corruption allegations surfaced, culminating in revelations that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had spent approximately Rs 52.7 crore of public funds to refurbish his official residence. This exposed the contradiction between AAP’s founding ideals and its actions while in power, leaving its integrity in tatters.”

Hindustan Times acknowledged the many hurdles facing the party, including clashes with the LG. It blamed the AAP’s “continued emphasis on freebies” which, it said, “was beginning to bother the middle class”. It was “this sentiment in the room that the BJP read” before it announced Budget 2025 that announced a tax rebate and redefined income tax slabs. 

In its editorial titled “The limits of welfarism”, the newspaper also said that an alliance between the Congress and AAP might have been fruitful since the Congress “played spoilsport in 12 seats for the AAP”. 

“Clearly, the Delhi verdict has a message for India’s opposition parties and a bearing on their willingness and ability to put up a united front against the BJP. But it has a louder message: in a compact, largely urban, and relatively rich province such as Delhi, welfarism has its limits,” it said.

The Times of India also pointed at the middle class, saying “pundits say the middle class swing that kneecapped AAP in Delhi may have started with civic problems like garbage and broken roads”.

“So, parties that have promised Singapores and Shanghais – and roads as smooth as an actress’s cheeks in Patna – for years should stop mistaking voters’ patience for amnesia, and start fixing city governance,” its editorial today said. 

It also said there’s therefore a need to empower India’s municipal corporations which implies “deepening their pockets”. “Currently, according to an RBI report, their revenue receipts amount to just 0.6% of GDP…As cities grow, so will their municipal financing needs, and bonds are an option worth considering now.”

The Telegraph in Kolkata said “anti-incumbency definitely played its role in Mr Kejriwal taking a tumble” because it’s “possible that the AAP fell short of the voters’ expectations on resolving other civic issues – Delhi’s poisonous air is an example – this time around”.

“Mr Kejriwal’s apparently opulent lifestyle became an issue during the poll campaign. The BJP also cleverly matched the AAP’s offer of freebies instead of relying on its traditional tactic of polarisation. That seems to have borne fruit too. Whether the Congress cut into a share of the AAP’s votes needs to be looked at,” its editorial said. 

Deccan Herald’s editorial focused on the BJP’s “canny campaign”, adding that the AAP “created many of the odds it had to fight against”.

The AAP’s “idealism wore off over the years and the achievements in governance, such as those in health and education, stagnated”. “Failures on matters such as supply of drinking water, clearing of garbage and cleaning of the Yamuna hurt the party. Most importantly, corruption charges damaged the image and credibility of its leaders,” it said. “Whether the charges were true or not, they were enough to alienate some sections from the party…The AAP did not have the rootedness of a regional party, nor an ideology, but only some whose appeal varied.”

A Deccan Chronicle editorial was more firm in placing the blame for the AAP’s defeat squarely on the Congress.

“...the definitive reason for the 2025 verdict lay in the continuing presence of the Congress party in a three-cornered contest that suggested the grand old party may have wished to scupper the AAP and thus delivered victory for the BJP,” it said. 

However, it added that Kejriwal “contributed to the common man deserting him by losing his original moorings as an anti-corruption crusader who promised to be an agent of change in Indian politics but could not subjugate an overweening ambition to become a contender for the post of Prime Minister”. 

Finally, an editorial in Telangana Today, titled “Saffron capital”, also focused on the Congress.

“Instead of reviewing its strategies and rebuilding a strong local leadership, the grand old party continued to rely on national leaders who failed to connect with the city’s changing voter base,” it said, referring to the Congress’s decline in Delhi from 2013. 

It added: “The Delhi mandate holds an important lesson for all parties: Welfare schemes alone cannot win elections. They must be supported by clean and efficient governance.”

But how, precisely, did the BJP win so dramatically in Delhi? There are five specific strategies the party wielded, and it laid its plans for the polls much in advance. Read this piece in Newslaundry to find out.

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