After Independence, Delhi, then a Part-C State, was granted an assembly that was disbanded in 1956. The assembly had 48 members. According to data sourced from the Election Commission of India, the story begins in 1951 with a handful of prominent parties vying for public endorsement.
The All-India Bhartiya Jan Sangh (BJS), contesting 31 seats, won five and earned a vote share of 21.89 per cent. The Indian National Congress (INC), contesting on 47 seats, won 39 with a 52.09 per cent vote share, establishing an early pattern of Congress dominance. Smaller contenders included the Socialist Party (SP), which contested six seats and won two, as well as the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (HMS), which got one seat. Independents also featured prominently, with 78 of them contesting but only one emerged victorious.
Delhi was given a Municipal Council in 1966. It had 56 members. The council had no legislative powers and functioned as an advisory institution with recommendatory powers. It was run by a Lieutenant Governor (or Administrator) appointed by the President of India. The council had one interim and four subsequent terms until 1990.
The 1972 Delhi election saw the BJS field 56 candidates and secure five victories, with a 38.47 per cent vote share. The INC got 44 out of 52 contested seats and with a 48.54 per cent vote share. The Communist Party of India (CPI) won three of the four seats it contested, with 3.86 per cent vote share. The Indian National Congress (Organisation) captured two seats, while Independents collectively claimed two seats out of 104 contests.
The year 1977 was a watershed election for Delhi and India. The Janata Party (JNP), a coalition of political parties formed after the Emergency, entered the arena and dramatically shifted the balance of power by winning 46 of the 56 seats it contested, registering a substantial 52.5 per cent vote share. The Indian National Congress, blamed for the Emergency, struggled in comparison, winning only 10 out of 52 seats and signalling a decline in its once formidable grip. This shift was a milestone in the broader trend of power alternating among key political outfits over the decades.
The year 1983 revealed further realignments. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), having evolved from the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh, fielded 50 candidates and won 19, with 36.99 per cent vote share. The INC, contesting 56 seats, came away with 34 victories and a 47.5 per cent share, indicating a measure of revived electoral strength. Meanwhile, the Janata Party struggled, winning only one of the 37 seats it contested, and the Lok Dal (LKD) picked up two wins out of six seats contested. The massive losses in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, along with splits in the coalition, curtailed the political growth of the Janata Party in the country.
Delhi received its present legislative structure in 1992. Through Article 239AA of the Constitution of India, the National Capital Territory of Delhi was given an assembly with 70 elected members.
For Delhi, the second assembly election was organised in 1993. The BJP contested 70 seats and triumphed in 49, securing 42.82 per cent of the vote and reflecting an electoral shift towards the party. The INC, also contesting all 70 seats, won 14 and held a 34.48 per cent share. The Janata Dal (JD) got four seats with 12.65 per cent vote share, while independent candidates secured three seats.
By 1998, the power pendulum had once again moved. The BJP’s vote share of 34.02 per cent translated into 15 wins out of 67 seats it contested, whereas the INC improved its tally to 52 victories from 70 seats and earned 47.76 per cent of the vote. The Janata Dal got one and independent candidates got two seats.
In 2003, the BJP won 20 seats and with a 35.22 per cent vote share. The INC, meanwhile, won 47 seats and registered 48.13 per cent. Modest performances from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Janata Dal (Secular) also contributed to the overall contest that year.
By the next election in 2008, the BJP improved to 23 wins out of the 69 seats it contested, with a 36.34 per cent share, while the INC claimed 43 of 70 seats, with a 40.31 per cent vote share. The Bahujan Samaj Party, the Lok Jan Shakti Party, and a large number of independents also fielded many candidates, though only a handful succeeded in winning.
Another year of political change for Delhi came in 2013. Following the anti-corruption movement launched by Anna Hazare in 2011, with Delhi as its epicentre, the 2013 assembly elections saw the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The party received a surprising welcome, winning 28 out of the 70 seats it contested with a vote share of 29.49 per cent. The BJP got 31 seats with a 33.07 per cent vote share. The INC slipped drastically to just eight wins and a 24.55 per cent share. Among smaller forces, the Janata Dal (United) and the Shiromani Akali Dal recorded single-seat victories.
The AAP formed the next government in Delhi with outside support from the INC, but it survived only for 49 days following the resignation of then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The party then chose to present itself as a national alternative, contesting 434 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha election, but could win just four seats in Punjab, and drew a blank in Delhi with Kejriwal losing against BJP’s candidate and prime-ministerial contender Narendra Modi from Varanasi.
The party again stormed back to power in the 2015 assembly elections, secuyring 67 of the 70 seats it contested with a 54.34 per cent vote share. The BJP won three seats, while other parties including the INC drew a blank. The BJP’s significant vote share, at 32.19 per cent, indicated that the INC was rapidly losing its grip on the capital city, which it had ruled for three consecutive terms under Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Before that, in 2014, the BJP had won all seven seats of the National Capital Region in the Lok Sabha polls.
The 2020 results offered a somewhat similar picture. AAP won 62 seats with 53.57 per cent of the total vote, followed by the BJP with eight seats and a 38.51 per cent vote share, while the INC repeated its previous cycle’s result of no seats and maintained a diminished 4.26 per cent share. As in 2014, the BJP also won all seven seats in Delhi in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections while the INC and the AAP drew a blank.
