Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: Delhi bucks the national trend

Sushma Swaraj’s daughter Bansuri Swaraj wins her electoral debut from New Delhi. Pic/X

The poll results in National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi appear to buck the national trend as BJP has done exceptionally well in this region. The Delhi seats were seen as a cut-throat electoral fight between BJP's Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance and AAP's Arvind Kejriwal led India bloc. But the broom-in-hand camaraderie did not work well for the AAP in the NCT Delhi, as the voters preferred to choose BJP candidates in the Lok Sabha elections, unlike their choice for MLAs in the Assembly polls.

Delhi's jailed chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was out on bail to campaign for INDIA bloc, failed miserably to lure voters with his freebies offers. BJP's newbie Bansuri Swaraj, the daughter of the late Union minister Sushma Swaraj, won the New Delhi seat. Swaraj was pitted against AAP leader Somnath Bharti, who had vowed to get his head shaved if Narendra Modi retains prime ministerial post for the third time. The voters are facing open nullah, mosquito menace, parking issue, etc.

No political party has secured consecutive wins in the LS polls for the New Delhi constituency. Taking no risk of losing, the BJP had to sideline its Parliamentarian Meenakshi Lekhi to field a newbie Bansuri Swaraj, who has 15 years of experience in the legal profession.

Bansuri - the youngest BJP candidate in Delhi - joined BJP's student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) as a worker nearly 25 years ago. After her undergraduate studies in English Literature at the University of Warwick, the 41-year-old Swaraj pursued Law at the esteemed BPP Law School in London. Continuing her academic journey, she attained a Master of Studies from St Catherine's College at the University of Oxford. However, after BJP emerged as the largest party in the Lok Sabha elections, the workers from saffron brigade were seen mocking Bharti by pretending to run a razor on a bald man on Delhi roads on Tuesday evening.

The Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar failed to dethrone BJP's sitting parliamentarian from North East Delhi Manoj Tiwari who registered his win in this poll with a decent margin of over 1,20 lakh votes.

In 2019, Kumar - a former JNU Students Union president known for his electrifying speech, had faced electoral drubbing with a margin of more than four lakh votes in the last general elections when contested on CPI(M) ticket from Begusarai seat in Bihar.

BJP's Ramvir Singh Bidhuri won South Delhi seat with a decent margin of more than 1.20 lakh. His closest rival is Sahi Ram from AAP. The voters in rural and semi-urban villages of North West Delhi have chosen BJP's Yogender Chandoliya over Congress's Udit Raj. The constituency has been reeling under several issues of illegal construction, encroachment, lack of sewage and drainage system, influx of migrants, etc.

‘Modi wave is over'

Though the BJP had been exuding confidence to win over 400 Lok Sabha seats, it could not even cross 250 seats. The voters in Delhi believe that the
BJP-led NDA will now have to largely bank on its allies. "Despite BJP sweeping Delhi, on the national front, it seems that the Modi wave is finally over after a decade. BJP will now have to rely on their allies in NDA to remain in power, in case they do manage to form the new government. It is likely that Modi will be a weakened PM in his third term," said Akshay Kapoor from Safdarjung Enclave of South Delhi.

07
No of seats in NCT Delhi