New Delhi: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeks to end its decades-long political dry spell in Delhi in the coming Assembly elections, a dozen seats out of the total 70 up for grabs are keeping the party leadership on tenterhooks.
The BJP hasn’t won these 12 seats since 2008, with nine of them remaining elusive since 1993—when elections were first held for the Delhi Assembly which replaced the earlier Delhi Metropolitan Council—and three since they were created after delimitation in 2008.
In what is expected to be a close contest, these seats could be crucial for the party, which hasn’t won an Assembly election in the national capital since 1993.
The BJP bagged 49 out of 70 seats in 1993 when senior party leader Madan Lal Khurana became chief minister. The once dominant Congress was reduced to just 14 seats.
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The Congress won the next three consecutive Assembly elections before the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
BJP leaders say they are confident of breaking the jinx in these 12 seats this time. The seats the BJP has never won are the Walled City’s Matia Mahal, Ballimaran, Ambedkar Nagar, Seelampur, Okhla, Sultanpur Majra, Mangolpuri, Jangpura, Deoli, New Delhi (since 2008), Vikaspuri (since 2008) and Kondli (2008 onwards).
Five of these seats—Sultanpur Majra, Ambedkar Nagar, Deoli, Mangolpuri and Kondli—are reserved for Scheduled Castes, a factor that weighs on BJP leaders’ minds as they seek to counter the onslaught by political adversaries over Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s controversial remarks on Babasaheb Ambedkar in the Rajya Sabha during the winter session of Parliament.
Many of the remaining seven constituencies—including Matia Mahal, Seelampur, Okhla and Ballimaran—have a sizeable Muslim population.
“The reserved seats have a number of slums and somehow we have not been able to tap them in the past but we have launched a number of initiatives specifically for the slum dwellers and you will see the result in these elections,” said a senior BJP leader.
Both the AAP and Congress have seized on the controversy over Amit Shah’s remarks on Ambedkar to target the BJP before the 5 February election.
The AAP released an AI-generated video in which Ambedkar can be seen “blessing” AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal. Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, while addressing his first ‘Jai Bhim-Jai Samvidhan’ public meeting in Northeast Delhi’s Seelampur Monday, questioned the AAP’s and BJP’s commitment to the Constitution and the rights of marginalised communities.
Delhi’s slum dwellers are a critical vote bank eyed by all political parties. According to estimates by political parties, around 20 lakh people live in Delhi’s slums.
They were traditionally supporters of the Congress, especially under former chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s tenure, but the AAP managed to win them over during the Assembly elections of 2013 and 2015 through a series of targeted policies such as mohalla clinics, reduction in power and water bills, and providing basic amenities in slum clusters.
The BJP has been making efforts to connect with slum dwellers before the high-stakes election. Party leaders have been visiting their homes and the Delhi BJP unit has also been organising ‘pravas’ (night stay) events where BJP leaders and workers stay in slums and interact with people to understand their problems.
While the AAP is trying to set the election agenda in Delhi by announcing a series of welfare initiatives, the BJP has focused on handing over ‘pucca’ houses to slum dwellers to strengthen its political hold.
Delhi BJP SC Morcha president Mohan Lal Gihara told ThePrint the party had been conducting an aggressive outreach programme in over 30 assembly seats, including 12 reserved seats, some of which the BJP has never won.
The party won only one of the 12 reserved seats, Karol Bagh, in 2003; two in 2008, Karol Bagh and Trilokpuri; and two in 2013, Bawana and Gokalpur; and none in 2015 and 2020.
“Our focus is chiefly on these seats and over 18,000 workers have been engaged in the exercise to make the residents aware of the work carried out by the Modi government at the Centre. Apart from this, we are also highlighting how the AAP government has made several promises but not implemented anything in these slums,” said Gihara.
The BJP is also looking to intensify its outreach programme with 55 Dalit leaders from the party—including former Union ministers and MPs from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana—conducting marathon meetings in these constituencies.
For instance, the BJP has not won the New Delhi seat since it came into existence in 2008.
“First it was Sheila Dikshit and then Kejriwal has been winning from this seat. We have deputed one of our most experienced and dynamic leaders, Parvesh Verma, to contest from there. From being an easy seat for Kejriwal, it has become a nightmare for him. The BJP is in the fight to win the seat,” said a senior BJP leader.
At the parliamentary level, the BJP has been successful in Delhi, winning all seven Lok Sabha seats in 2014, 2019 and 2024. However, Assembly results have been disappointing for it, with the party now holding just eight of 70 seats. The AAP won 62 seats in 2020.
Addressing the challenge of Muslim-dominated constituencies, the BJP’s national spokesperson, R.P. Singh, said the party has managed to break the narrative and won the Kundarki seat in Uttar Pradesh and Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir. “This shows that even Muslims can vote for the BJP; we just need to field the right candidates,” he said.
Singh said the BJP had taken significant steps since early last year to improve its standing in reserved seats. “We have been working hard on the ground and over 2.14 lakh BJP workers (panna pramukhs) have been contacting people in these constituencies, explaining to them how the Centre has done so much for Delhi, whether infrastructure or housing.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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