After 27 years of drought, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to form the government in Delhi for the first time in a remarkable electoral victory.
According to data from the Election Commission of India (EC), the BJP has secured wins or leads in 47 out of the 70 seats in the legislative assembly, surpassing the required magic number or the majority of 35 seats. Meanwhile, the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is leading in 23 seats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed his party workers soon after the election results were declared. In one of his speeches, he thanked his karyakartas and said Delhi people can finally breathe in relief.
“Today, there is excitement and relief in the minds of the people of Delhi. Excitement for victory and relief is for making Delhi, AAP-da free…I bow my head and thank the people of Delhi for believing in Modi’s guarantee,” he said.
Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Narendra Modi congratulated his party workers for their win calling it “Development wins, good governance triumphs.”
The prime minister in his X post wrote, “I bow to my dear sisters and brothers of Delhi for this resounding and historic mandate to @BJP4India. We are humbled and honoured to receive these blessings. It is our guarantee that we will leave no stone unturned in developing Delhi, improving the overall quality of life for the people and ensuring that Delhi has a prime role to play in building a Viksit Bharat.”
Aam Admi Party (AAP) ruled Delhi for three consecutive years after it overthrew Congress in 2013. However, this year’s elections came as a big blow to Arvind Kejriwal whose focus on governance was mainly on improving education and health facilities in the city.
AAP’s biggest names including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Satyender Jain, the three men who served jail term for the infamous Delhi excise scam policy lost to their BJP competitors.
Delhi’s incumbent chief minister Atishi Singh was the only saving grace having defeated BJP’s controversial leader Ramesh Bidhuri from the Kalkaji constituency. Bidhuri is known for his Islamophobic and misogynist remarks.
AAP, BJP and Congress’ footprint in Delhi
The AAP established its dominance in Delhi’s political map routing both the BJP and Congress in the 2015 Assembly polls, winning 67 of the 70 Assembly seats.
The party again formed its government in 2020, winning 62 seats and decimating the opposition BJP and Congress.
A victory for the AAP will establish Kejriwal’s dominance in Delhi and enhance his political stature nationally. However, if the BJP wins the polls, it will not only be back to power in Delhi after a long gap of over 26 years but also succeed in breaking the spell of AAP and Kejriwal that it has been vying for a decade.
The results will reveal if AAP’s political dominance in Delhi remains intact or is dented enough by the BJP for the saffron party to return to power for the first time since 1998.
The Congress, which governed Delhi from 1998 to 2013, is looking to stage a comeback after failing to win a single seat in the previous two elections.
Several exit polls have given the BJP an edge over the AAP, which has been ruling in Delhi since 2015.
Shahdara, Central Delhi, East, South, and Southwest districts will each have one counting station. The North, West, Northeast, and Southeast districts will each have two counting stations, while the New Delhi and Northwest districts will have three counting stations each.
According to the Election Commission, 60.54 per cent of votes were polled on Wednesday.
Security arrangements ahead for counting of votes for Delhi Assembly elections
Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Alice Vaz said 5,000 personnel, including supervisors and assistants, micro-observers, and support staff trained for the process, had been deployed for the exercise.
According to the Conduct of Election Rules, postal ballots will be counted first and the process of counting of votes recorded in electronic voting machines (EVMs) begins 30 minutes later.
After that, the counting of votes cast through postal ballots and EVMs will continue simultaneously.
Since 2019, VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) slips from five randomly selected polling stations per assembly constituency are matched with the EVM count for greater transparency.
Delhi, with 1.55 crore eligible voters, recorded a turnout of 60.54 per cent in the February 5 election.
A three-tier security arrangement with 10,000 police personnel, including two companies of paramilitary forces at each centre, has been put in place.
Delhi has 70 constituencies for its Legislative Assembly. The magic number to form a majority is 36 seats.
| Parties | Lead | Win | Total |
| BJP | 0 | 48 | 48 |
| AAP | 0 | 22 | 22 |
| INC | – | – | – |
| Others | – | – | – |
| Total | 51 | 19 | 70 |
8:00 am: Counting of votes begins. BJP leads.
8:30 am: The Election Commission of India gives leads to the BJP in 2 constituencies in early trends.
Om Prakash Sharma of the BJP leads in Vishwas Nagar and Sanjay Goyal leads in Shadara as per early trends of the ECI.
8:45 am: AAP, BJP, Congress candidates visit temples, offer prayers ahead of Delhi Assembly results
9:00 am: According to the latest trends being run by television channels, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who is pitted against the BJP’s Parvesh Verma in the New Delhi seat, was trailing.
In the Kalkaji seat, Chief Minister Atishi was trailing the BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri.
Former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was also trailing in Jangpura.
The BJP’s Karawal Nagar candidate Kapil Mishra was leading while AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj was ahead in the Greater Kailash seat.
9:30 am: As early trends give BJP the upper hand and AAP trails Jammu Kashmir chief minsiter Omar Abduallah in a sarcastic remark over the visible cracks in the INDIA alliance shared a post on X. “Aur lado aapas mei,” read the post.
9:41 am: In the Election Commission’s early trends at this time, BJP has crossed the magic figure of 36/70, while the AAP trails with 16.
10:00 am: The BJP was leading in 43 of Delhi’s 70 assembly seats while AAP was ahead in 27, according to the early trends released by the Election Commission.
10:35 am: AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal was leading by 343 votes from the New Delhi seat after three rounds of counting. However, Kejriwal’s former deputy Manish Sisodia was trailing by 1,314 votes in Jagpura.
In Kalkaji, chief minister Atishi was trailing the BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri by 1,149 votes after the first round of counting, the Election Commission (EC) data showed.
“The people will give the BJP a decisive mandate. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, Delhi will progress alongside the rest of the country. I can confidently say that AAP will be eliminated from the national capital,” Bidhuri said.
The BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht was leading by 16,181 votes in Mustafabad — where the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielded northeast Delhi riots-accused Tahir Hussain — after three rounds.
10:40 am In Okhla, AAP’s Amantullah Khan was trailing the BJP’s Manish Chaudhary by 2,260 votes.
AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj was trailing by 459 votes in Greater Kailash while Gopal Rai, his colleague in the Delhi Cabinet, was leading by 8,995 votes in Babarpur.
The BJP’s Kapil Mishra was leading in the Karawal Nagar seat by 8,603 votes after three rounds of counting while Tilak Ram Gupta was ahead by 8,339 votes in Tri Nagar.
Saffron party candidates Sanjay Goel (Shahdara), Chandan Chaudhary (Sangam Vihar), Bajrang Shukla (Kirari) and Kartar Singh Tanwar (Chhatarpur) were also leading.
Durgesh Pathak (Rajinder Nagar), Anjana Parcha (Trilokpuri) and Veer Singh Dhingan (Seemapuri) were ahead of their rivals.
11:20 am: Arvind Kejriwal (AAP) – 14,226 votes – Trailing
Parvesh Verma (BJP) – 14,464 votes – Leading
Sandeep Dikshit (Congress) – 2,393 votes – Trailing
11:31 am: Delhi election results 2025: Celebrations at BJP office in Delhi as the party is leading in counting of votes.
11:42 am: AAP leaders Satyendar Jain from Shakur Basti, Atishi Marlena from Kalkaji and Arvind Kejriwal from New Delhi trail behind BJP leaders.
12:23 pm: According to reports, former education minister Manish Sisodia has lost the Jangpura seat to BJP’s Tarvinder Singh Marwah by a small margin. According to the ECI, 8 of 10 rounds have been completed with Sisodia trailing by a mere 636 votes.
The AAP leader conceded defeat and said that the loss would be analysed by the party. Sisodia had jumped from the Patparganj constituency to Jangpura after a win by a small margin in the last election.
12:40 pm: Arvind Kejriwal loses to Prawesh Varma in New Delhi constituency by a margin of 1200 votes.
12:43 pm: New Delhi MLA elect and probable Delhi chief minister, after his win has headed to Home minister Amit Shah’s residence to “seek blessings”.
1:00 pm: Sitting Delhi chief minister Atishi Singh defeated BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri in the Kalkaji constituency brining some relief to the AAP after Kejriwal and Sisodia’s defeat.
1:10 pm: AAP’s Satyendar Jain lost to BJP’s Karnail Singh in Shakur Basti.
2:10 pm: AAP chief Kejriwal concedes defeat. “We accept the mandate of the people with great humility. I congratulate the BJP for this victory and I hope they will fulfil all the promises for which people have voted them. We have done a lot of work in the field of health, education, infrastructure in the last 10 years. We will not only play the role of a constructive opposition but will also remain among the people and continue to serve them,”
4:00 pm: On Congress’s disastrous performance in the elections, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s husband Robert Vadra said that INDIA alliance should stick together to keep BJP away. “You have to see the vote percentage. There are many places where Congress is on the second number… There is a drastic change on the ground. The AAP lost because the voters turned to Congress. The voter percentage has turned to the Congress… To fight the BJP, the INDIA alliance must stay together… The INDIA Alliance should stick together keeping their differences apart.”
4:30 pm: After defeating AAP’s Manish Sisodia from Jangpura constituency, BJP’s winning candidate thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his success.
5:00 pm: BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht wins the Mustafabad Assembly constituency over AAP’s Adeel Ahmed Khan who secured second position with 67,637 votes and AIMIM Mohd Tahir Hussain who got 33,474 votes. Mustafabad was one of the epicenter of the 2020 North East Delhi riots. AAP’s Adeel Ahmad Khan secured second position with 67,637 votes, while AIMIM’s Tahir Hussain, a UAPA prisoner, came third with 33,474 votes.
5:00 pm: Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Narendra Modi has congratulated his party workers for their win in the Delhi elections. Calling it a “Development wins, good governance triumphs,” the prime minister in his X post wrote, “I bow to my dear sisters and brothers of Delhi for this resounding and historic mandate to @BJP4India. We are humbled and honoured to receive these blessings. It is our guarantee that we will leave no stone unturned in developing Delhi, improving the overall quality of life for the people and ensuring that Delhi has a prime role to play in building a Viksit Bharat.”
5:45 pm: AAP MLA and candidate from Okhla constituency wins yet again, third time in a row, told reporters that his win is not a celebration. “Our all the senior leaders have lost their seats and we have lost the elections…I am disappointed because we will not be able to serve the people…” he said.
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