New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has managed to win four of the 12 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the Delhi assembly, after failing to win even one in last two assembly polls. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the other hand, has won eight this time, compared to all 12 in the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections.
The Dalit community constitutes over 16 percent of Delhi’s population and plays a significant role in determining the verdict in about two dozen seats, including the 12 reserved constituencies—Sultan Pur Majra, Mangol Puri, Karol Bagh, Patel Nagar, Madipur, Deoli, Ambedkar Nagar, Trilokpuri, Kondli, Seemapuri, Gokalpur and Bawana.
The election campaigns by various parties this time were largely centred on freebies, besides issues like Yamuna pollution and corruption. However, the AAP had also slammed BJP over Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s allegedly controversial remarks on Babasaheb Ambedkar. The AAP had released an AI-generated video in which Ambedkar could be seen “blessing” AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
At the same time, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, had questioned AAP and BJP’s commitment to the Constitution and the rights of marginalised communities, while addressing a ‘Jai Bapu-Jai Bhim-Jai Samvidhan’ public meeting in Northeast Delhi’s Seelampur last month.
The reserved seats have a sizeable number of slum clusters, where the AAP has previously had an edge over its rivals, owing to its populist schemes. Slum dwellers were traditionally viewed as supporters of the Congress, especially during former chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s tenure, but the AAP managed to win them over in 2013 and 2015 through a series of targeted policies, such as mohalla clinics, reduction in power and water bills, and providing basic amenities in slum clusters.
The BJP, too, made efforts to connect with them in the run-up to the 2025 assembly polls. The party’s Delhi unit organised ‘pravas’ events, where leaders and workers stayed overnight in slum areas to interact with the residents and understand their problems.
The BJP has promised to allot houses to slum dwellers in the very first cabinet meeting, if it comes to power in the national capital, while accusing AAP of not handing over keys of 8,000 ready-to-deliver pucca houses to eligible candidates.
“We have won 4 out of 12 reserved seats for the first time since 2015 assembly elections. But apart from the reserved seats we were also given charge of 30 seats (by the central leadership) which have 17% to 44% SC population and we call them SC-dominated seats. Out of these 30 seats we have won 18, which is a big number,” said BJP SC Morcha Delhi president Mohan Lal Gihara.
He added that the party managed this feat as it involved leaders, ministers, organisational workers belonging to the Dalit community to reach out to Dalit voters. “We carried out Swabhimaan Sammelan, held meetings with important people from the community and all this helped us in winning Delhi.”
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