Current affairs explainers · Note 016
Delhi 2025: the BJP returns to power after 27 years
Study context: GS II — Salient features of the Representation of People's Act; appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.
Background explainer from the November 2026 study collection. Events discussed may predate the collection; this is not a monthly news update.
Delhi voted on 5 February 2025 to elect all 70 members of its Legislative Assembly, and counting took place on 8 February 2025. The election ended a decade of Aam Aadmi Party government in the capital and returned the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in Delhi for the first time since 1998, a gap of 27 years. The result was therefore historic in Delhi's own terms, even though it involved only 70 seats.
The BJP won 48 seats and the Aam Aadmi Party won 22, while the Congress won none, for the third consecutive Delhi Assembly election. The vote shares were closer than the seats suggested: the BJP secured 47.15 per cent of the vote and the AAP secured 43.57 per cent. The gap in votes was only a few percentage points, but the gap in seats was 26, another illustration of first-past-the-post amplification.
Several prominent AAP leaders lost, including former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who lost the New Delhi seat to the BJP's Parvesh Verma, and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. The outgoing Chief Minister, Atishi, retained her Kalkaji seat. Rekha Gupta, the BJP legislator from Shalimar Bagh, was sworn in as Chief Minister on 20 February 2025.
The campaign had centred on governance in the capital, including air quality, water, roads, and the working of Delhi's unique constitutional arrangement, under which the elected government shares power with the Lieutenant Governor and the Centre controls police, land, and public order. The AAP had built its appeal on schools, health clinics, and subsidised services, while the BJP campaigned on corruption allegations against AAP leaders and on the promise of double-engine government, meaning the same party in power in Delhi and at the Centre.
Delhi's result also mattered nationally, because it removed the AAP's only state government outside Punjab and weakened its claim to be a national alternative. For civil studies readers, Delhi shows how a capital's election can be both a local verdict on services and a national signal about a party's trajectory.
Key takeaways
- The BJP won 48 of 70 seats in Delhi in 2025, and the AAP won 22, while the Congress won none.
- Voting was held on 5 February 2025 and counting on 8 February 2025; Rekha Gupta was sworn in as Chief Minister on 20 February 2025.
- The vote gap was only a few percentage points, but the seat gap was 26, illustrating first-past-the-post amplification.
Why it matters for civil studies
A capital election can be a local verdict on services and, at the same time, a national signal about a party.
Think it through
Does Delhi's shared-power arrangement make it harder for voters to judge who is responsible for services?
From the Public Notes companion study collection. Editorial context and corrections.