In both the 2015 and 2020 Delhi elections, the BJP attempted to undermine Kejriwal’s appeal by mocking his welfare policies, dismissing them as “freebies (revdi)”, and deploying Hindutva-based polarisation tactics. The AAP, however, stunned everyone by winning 67 of 70 Delhi assembly seats in 2015, and then retained its dominance in the 2020 elections, securing 62 seats.
BJP leaders’ taunts over the years, terming Kejriwal as an “urban Naxal” and “anti-national” seemed no good, and he remained the only regional leader who appeared politically invincible against the formidable duo of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, who successfully unseated political veterans, such as Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra, Naveen Patnaik in Odisha, Lalu Prasad in Bihar, and the Yadavs in Uttar Pradesh.
After three successive defeats in Delhi, however, the BJP recalibrated its strategy well before the 2025 Delhi elections. This time, instead of focusing solely on ideological attacks, the party in power at the Centre leveraged the Delhi excise policy row to brand the AAP supremo as “corrupt”.
Allegations that Kejriwal built a “sheesh mahal for himself”, referring to the use of “extravagant luxurious items” to renovate the official bungalow that he occupied in his capacity as Delhi CM, further reinforced this narrative and dismantled his “aam aadmi” image.
Speaking to ThePrint as the elections results were being counted Saturday, BJP’s Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva said: “Our focus was on exposing Kejriwal’s hyped governance model, and we achieved that.”
A Delhi poll strategist pointed out that the BJP losing the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls in 2022 was a big plus for the party.
“Since this assembly election was all about local issues, our losing the MCD became a big plus, as earlier Kejriwal used to blame all local and civic issues on the BJP being in control of the municipal body,” he said.
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Dismantling Brand Kejriwal
Kejriwal’s appeal as a “common man” politician was a major factor in AAP’s past electoral victories and had drawn the middle class to the party, just like it did to Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
However, the BJP seemed to have realised from the 2020 Delhi poll result that simply labelling Kejriwal as “jhoota” (liar) without offering a substantive counter-narrative would not work.
Ahead of polls that year, the BJP had run a newspaper advertisement asking voters to reject AAP due to its “5 saal ka jhoot”—a campaign that failed to resonate with voters, especially slum-dwellers, who had benefited from Kejriwal’s welfare schemes such as free water and electricity. The Election Commission too labelled the BJP’s allegation as “false, frivolous and unsubstantiated”.
Ahead of this election, rather than mocking AAP’s welfare model, the BJP focused on the “liquor scam” to target the Delhi CM. It deployed its entire Delhi leadership to brand Kejriwal as “corrupt” while he was sent to jail in the matter.
Once the AAP supremo was in jail, the BJP had already won half the battle in dismantling his image as an anti-corruption crusader.
PM Modi also used the “sheesh mahal” charge in his speeches in Parliament and ahead of the Delhi polls to mock the AAP.
Speaking to ThePrint, a Delhi BJP leader admitted that “our major roadblock was Kejriwal’s image of an aam aadmi and non-corrupt politician”.
“The 2015 election result was a wave for the activist Kejriwal who wanted to change politics. We had brought in Kiran Bedi, another activist from the Anna agitation, to challenge him, knowing her clean image, but it did not help the BJP as she was not a politician and alienated the cadre more,” he explained.
“The 2020 election victory was due to the welfare policies of Kejriwal. We realised that without denting his image, we could not win. And when he made his first self-goal, we cashed on it. We were sure that once his image was diluted, it will be easier to win in Delhi and we could then counter him on the welfare model, which we did this time,” he added.
Hyper-local election, no Hindutva
Unlike 2020, when the BJP had attempted to nationalise the Delhi election by emphasising on nationalism and Hindutva, its 2025 campaign was fought on local, civic issues.
The party highlighted problems such as poor drainage, crumbling infrastructure, inadequate healthcare and the conditions in Delhi’s slums. Recognising the growing anti-incumbency against the AAP after over 10 years in power, the BJP shifted its focus away from national rhetoric and concentrated on micro-level “governance failures”, like it had done in Haryana and Maharashtra to great results.
PM Modi personally directed BJP’s booth-level workers to post videos on social media showcasing the state of Delhi’s jhuggi-jhopdi clusters, government schools, and hospitals. This grassroots campaign, led by local BJP leaders, exposed flaws in AAP’s governance model.
Unlike 2020, when the BJP’s campaign was dominated by Hindutva rhetoric and the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Shaheen Bagh, the 2025 election largely avoided communal polarisation. The only exception was Yogi Adityanath, who last month accused the AAP of “sheltering Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators” and wondered whether the party was “possessed by the spirit of Aurangzeb”.
In 2020, several BJP leaders had made incendiary slogans and speeches. At one rally, BJP MP Anurag Thakur raised the slogan of ‘Desh Ke Gaddaron Ko‘ to which the crowds responded with ‘Goli Maro Salon Ko’. Another MP Parvesh Verma said that protesters at Shaheen Bagh “can enter homes and rape our daughters and sisters”.
Home Minister Amit Shah, who was leading the poll campaign, too asked Delhi voters at a rally whether they were with “Modi or Shaheen Bagh” while Kejriwal was described as a “terrorist” by Verma.
This time, PM Modi, while not naming Kejriwal, likened the AAP to “AAPda (crisis)” in Delhi and called it the enemy of the middle class.
The BJP even pushed its cadre in 26 stronghold seats of the AAP to take advantage of anti-incumbency. In Muslim-dominated areas where the AAP has strong support, the BJP expected a split in votes between the Congress and AIMIM, so avoided the Hindutva pitch to stop polarisation of votes towards the AAP.
A BJP leader told ThePrint: “When the BJP president (J.P. Nadda) held a meeting of NDA MPs, all were told to camp in Delhi. More than 300 MPs and thousands of party workers and RSS cadres were deployed over several months for micro-management of the polls at the ground level.”
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Welfare promises to counter AAP ‘revdis’
One of BJP’s biggest strategic shifts in 2025 was its willingness to match and even outdo AAP’s welfare promises. While the BJP had previously criticised Kejriwal’s “revdi” politics, it recognised that Indian voters were increasingly transactional, prioritising tangible benefits over ideological concerns.
Learning from its successful welfare schemes in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and Maharashtra, the BJP crafted a manifesto tailored to Delhi’s lower-income groups.
The party promised full ownership rights for residents of 1,700 unauthorised colonies, Rs 10 lakh insurance for gig workers, monthly financial assistance of Rs 2,500 for women, free LPG cylinders, an integrated transport system, and an expanded fleet of electric buses.
More importantly, the BJP assured voters that it would continue all of Kejriwal’s popular welfare schemes, countering AAP’s claims that the BJP would end them.
The AAP’s free electricity, free bus service, free water and mohalla clinic schemes had over a decade consolidated its hold among the weaker sections of people in Delhi.
BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal told ThePrint that “our welfare model and PM’s guarantee helped us consolidate the trust of people”.
Targeting AAP loyalists
In its 2015 and 2020 victories, the AAP had got huge support from women, weaker sections and Muslims. Women are estimated to make up 46 percent of Delhi’s population and men 54 percent. In 2020, 60 percent of women had voted for AAP and 35 percent for the BJP, according to CSDS data, while AAP’s overall vote share was 54 percent and BJP’s 39 percent that year.
Knowing AAP’s strong base among women, the BJP this time promised them financial aid of Rs 2,500 per month, more than the Rs 2,100 promised by the AAP, and party leader Parvesh Verma was even reported to have given some women cash handouts.
The Delhi BJP leader mentioned earlier said that “AAP has made huge inroads into the poor women segment, but our track record and trust factor was instrumental in convincing women to trust us”.
“Another roadblock for AAP was that it could not make a single case disbursement in Delhi, unlike our Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh schemes for women. We amplified non-implementation of the party’s aid scheme for women in Punjab to puncture its claims,” he added.
Ahead of the polls, BJP’s Delhi cadre also camped in slums for weeks, strengthening ties with residents by living and eating with them. This direct engagement helped the BJP make inroads into AAP’s core voter base.
Winning back middle-class
Delhi’s middle class, traditionally a BJP stronghold in national elections, had gravitated toward the AAP in assembly elections due to Kejriwal’s corruption-free image but recently appeared disenchanted because of the party’s apparent focus on the poorer sections and the beating taken by Kejriwal’s clean image.
The BJP further capitalised on the middle-class discontent by announcing tax cuts in the Union Budget 2025, securing crucial support from salaried professionals. Additionally, the Modi government introduced the 8th Pay Commission for government employees, a significant proportion of whom reside in Delhi.
According to BJP leaders, the ‘sheesh mahal’ charges and “RSS’ micro-management also helped the party get back trust of the middle-class”.
The Delhi BJP leader summarised the strategy thus: “We knew that AAP’s Muslim vote base would remain intact, so we focused on breaking Kejriwal’s core constituencies—women, the weaker sections, and the middle class.”
“Competitive welfare policies and strategic outreach helped us bridge the gap,” he told ThePrint.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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