Delhi Assembly Elections 2025 | Low vote share in past makes the going tough for Congress in key seats

New Delhi: Congress has fielded high-profile candidates against AAP top guns Arvind Kejriwal, Atishi, and Manish Sisodia in the Delhi elections, but data from the last three polls shows an uphill task for the party, as it had polled only 3,200 to 13,600 votes in these seats since 2013.

While BJP appears to have settled on a threshold in New Delhi, Kalkaji, and Jangpura, AAP has increased its votes in seats where party chief Kejriwal, Chief Minister Atishi and former Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia are contesting respectively.

Congress has fielded former MP Sandeep Dikshit in New Delhi, Mahila Congress chief Alka Lamba in Kalkaji, and former Mayor Farhad Suri in Jangpura while BJP's Pervesh Verma, Ramesh Bidhuri, and Tarwinder Singh Marwah will fight from these seats respectively.

Since 2013, Congress has not won these seats. “We have to take on AAP to win back the space we lost to them,” a senior leader said.

Sandeep, tasked to regain New Delhi where his mother and Delhi’s iconic Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit lost to Kejriwal in 2013, has gone on an offensive against the AAP chief. However, he still has a ‘political Himalaya’ to conquer, as Congress managed only 3,220 votes in 2020 polls.

This was just one-twelfth of 39,778 votes which Sheila bagged in 2008 against BJP’s 25,796. Her votes dwindled to 18,405 votes in 2013, when Kejriwal won with 44,629 votes, while BJP garnered 17,952.

Kejriwal’s votes rose to 57,123 in 2015 but slid to 46,578 in 2020. Congress lost too many votes in 2015 with Kiran Walia, a close confidante of Sheila, bagging only 4,781 votes, which further shrunk five years later.

BJP crawled back to its previous numbers bagging 25,630 in 2015 followed by 25,061 in the last elections to become the only party to retain its votes in the seat and now hopes a better performance by Congress could squeeze Kejriwal’s chances.

Jangpura is another seat where Congress has fielded a former mayor while BJP candidate Marwah has been contesting the seat as a Congress candidate since 1998 elections.

Marwah won thrice consecutively from 1998 – increasing his votes from 28,384 to 37,261 – but from 2013, when he tasted defeat for the first time, Congress votes declined to– 27,977, 22,620, and 13,565 in subsequent elections. AAP increased its votes from 29,701 to 45,086 while BJP too has seen a rise from 18,978 to 29,070.

Prospects in Kalkaji are also not enthusiastic for Congress as AAP rose from 28,639 votes to 54,994 and 55,897 when Atishi made her debut in 2020.

Congress’ votes dropped from 38,360 in 2008 to 25,787, 13,506 and 4,956 in subsequent elections. BJP, which won in 2013 with 30,683 votes, had also seen its votes rising to 35,202 and 44,504 in the next polls.