New tricks needed despite hat-trick - The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Unlike the trend of BJP loosening its hold on several states it had swept in 2019, the party again held Delhi in a vice-like grip winning all the seven seats for the third consecutive general elections. And like in the elections of 2019, BJP's vote share was over 50 per cent this year too.
The saffron party's Ramvir Singh Bidhuri won in South Delhi, Yogender Chandoliya in North-West Delhi, Bansuri Swaraj in New Delhi, Harsh Malhotra in East Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat in West Delhi, Praveen Khandelwal in Chandni Chowk and Manoj Tiwari in North-East Delhi.
Except for Tiwari, the party had put up fresh candidates this year, and BJP city seniors said this helped counter anti-incumbency and keep the cadres motivated. "When you are able to convince the electorate that your party is forming the govt at the centre, the fence-sitters also emerge in your support," explained a senior functionary.
Delhi BJP unit president Virendra Sachdeva said, "The people of the capital gave us this mandate for the works done by PM Narendra Modi for Delhi and for his visionary leadership." Party functionaries said that the campaign had been decided months in advance to centre on two talking points: the performance of PM Modi and the corruption allegations against AAP, including about the excise policy, renovation of the CM's house and financial discrepancies in Delhi Jal Board.

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"AAP is no longer the party seen as a group of honest people with noble intentions. The liquor policy has exposed them and three of their top leaders are in jail on corruption charges with the courts refusing to grant them bail," said Sachdeva.
With the Lok Sabha polls wrapped up, BJP anticipates the resounding win to provide it the impetus it needs for the assembly elections eight months away. The party has encountered obstacles in the previous assembly polls, winning, respectively, just three and eight seats in 2015 and 2020, despite sweeping the stakes in the two Lok Sabha elections held a year prior to each in 2014 and 2019.
BJP insiders, therefore, feel the 2025 assembly polls could similarly prove arduous due not only to the absence of a compelling narrative to counter AAP's populist policy but also because of factionalism within the state unit.
A party functionary admitted that BJP, which last formed the government in Delhi in 1993, lacked a charismatic figure to rival Arvind Kejriwal. He also conceded an overreliance on the Modi factor and this places them at a disadvantage in state and local polls. This was one of the reasons AAP was able to wrest control of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi from BJP in 2022.
The clean sweep will result in a larger share of development projects for the city, BJP functionaries hoped. One of them said, "With BJP also forming the govt at the Centre, Delhi can again expect a larger share of development funds as it has been doing. Delhi is the first state in the country that got the regional rapid rail besides the Delhi-Bombay, Delhi-Dehradun and Saharanpur expressways," he said, adding, "You can expect more such projects. There is also a huge demand for the expansion of Delhi Metro to the fringes of the city and we have committed to our voters that we would accomplish this."

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