Modi conquers Delhi as the BJP triumphs in the capital

The ruling party is expected to win a total of 48 seats out of 70. The AAP, in power until now, stops at 22, while Congress gets none. Turnout is expected to be 60.4% of those entitled to vote, out of a total of about 15.5 million voters. For the prime minister, another success in local elections, after the successes of recent months in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

Delhi (AsiaNews) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has triumphed in the Delhi Territory vote, winning the government of the Indian capital after 27 years at the end of a hard-fought round of elections watched carefully by analysts and observers.

According to the initial results released by the Election Commission (EC), the BJP has won or is currently in the lead in at least 48 of the 70 seats that make up the Legislative Assembly.

On the other hand, the Aam Aadmi Party (the Common Man's Party or AAP) of Arvind Kejriwal, which governed the capital since 2013, is thought to have won only 22 seats.

The party that wins more than half of the seats (35) gets the green light to form the government, in a vote that, although local, also has national repercussions, further strengthening the leadership of Modi and his party.

Last autumn the BJP had already won other local elections, in particular in the southern state of Maharashtra. Returning to the capital, a federally administered territory, the defeat of the Congress party, the third main competitor, which did not win any constituency, is worth noting.

In Delhi there were over 15.5 million people with the right to vote, called upon to choose 70 representatives in as many single-member constituencies.

The turnout figure provided by the EC stands at around 60.4%, with the members of the Commission having banned the conducting and publication of exit polls during the vote, so as not to influence the electorate while awaiting the official results.

In the previous rounds in 2015 and 2020, the AAP and its leader Arvind Kejriwal had won a clear victory, but he fell from grace last year due to a judicial investigation linked to the sale of alcohol.

Arrested in March 2024, he was granted bail by the Supreme Court in September, and then resigned as party leader, entrusting it to his colleague Atishi Marlena Singh pending trial.

There are strong suspicions linked to a round of bribes for permits on the sale of alcohol, which have tarnished the image of a leader who has always declared himself innocent and has established himself in the past, together with the party, as an anti-corruption force.

For the BJP and Modi, securing control of Delhi, where he last won in 1998, goes far beyond simple electoral success, because it represents a crucial step in leading the nation.

The success follows important victories such as the one already mentioned in Maharashtra or in Chhattisgarh; to win in the capital the premier didn't spare any effort, personally participating - together with the Home Secretary Amit Shah - in electoral events in the last weeks.

After all, Delhi has a unique governance structure, in which decisions regarding public order, police and territory are made by an official (lieutenant governor, LG) appointed by the federal government, while other sectors including education, health and public services are the prerogative of the state administration.

This division has often caused friction and controversy between the central and local governments, especially when rival parties were in charge of the two entities.

During the election campaign, the parties focused on issues such as assistance and welfare programmes, while the long-standing problem of pollution, which undermines the health of the more than 30 million inhabitants, remained off the agenda.

In the past, the BJP had promised to halve the Air Quality Index (AQI) by 2030 if it won the election, and other parties had touched on the issue of pollution, but there were no debates or discussions on the subject during the election campaign.