Arvind Kejriwal’s New Delhi Fortress Set to Crumble as BJP’s Parvesh Verma Leads by 4,000 Votes

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Supremo and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is on track to lose the New Delhi constituency seat to BJP's Parvesh Verma. With only one round of vote counting left, Verma is leading by 4,089 votes, as per the Election Commission of India’s website. Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit trailing in third place.

Kejriwal had represented the New Delhi seat since 2013, when he defeated Congress stalwart Sheila Dikshit, marking the start of AAP's dominance in the city. This defeat, which followed his former deputy Manish Sisodia’s withdrawal in Janpura, underlines the scale of AAP's losses in the current election. By 1 PM, trends showed the BJP leading in 48 out of the 70 Assembly seats in Delhi, with AAP holding 22. Verma thanked the voters of New Delhi. He emphasized the importance of a “double engine” government, referring to the BJP's control both at the Centre and in Delhi.

The BJP has not been in power in Delhi since 1998, while AAP has held sway over the capital for the past decade, winning landslide victories in both the 2015 and 2020 elections. Meanwhile, Congress, which governed Delhi from 1998 to 2013, seems to be heading for another loss. In the February 5 elections, voter turnout stood at 60.54%, with 1.55 crore eligible voters.​​