Madan Lal Khurana was BJP's first CM in Delhi.
Credit: DH Archives
Delhi is all set to go to polls on February 5. All the 70 seats will have a single phase polling with the results scheduled to be announced on February 8.
Before we go into the ensuing Delhi Assembly Elections 2025, let us dig deep into the political history of the national capital.
When was the first Delhi Elections held
That brings us to the vexed question as to when did Delhi go to the polls for the first time.
As per the official records, Delhi first went to the polls in 1952, but it was an interim arrangement as the States Reorganisation Commission Act was commissioned a year later.
Initially the Delhi administration was vested with a council.
However, the next legislative Assembly elections in Delhi were held only in 1993, when Union Territory of Delhi was formally declared as National Capital Territory of Delhi by the Sixty-ninth Amendment to the Indian constitution.
The first election to the 70-member Assembly was held on November 6, 1993 with 61.75 % voter turnout recorded as per Election Commission of India records.
In the results that were declared a few dats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) romped to power by winning a staggering 49 seats.
Senior BJP leader Madan Lal Khurana, who won from Moti Nagar constituency became the first chief minister of independent Delhi.
Congress, which was the ruling party at Centre at that time, had to play second fiddle and came a distant second with 14 seats in the Assembly and had to be contend with the main opposition party status in the House.
Janata Dal (which was not spilt at that time) won four seats while three seats went to independents.
As many as five parties -- CPI(M), CPI, All India Forward Block, BSP and Shiv Sena drew a blank with most of them losing their security deposits in the seats contested.