Delhi Elections: How & Why Kejriwal, Sisodia, Top AAP Leaders Lost Their Seats

Did votes to Congress candidates lead to 3 top AAP leaders losing their own seats? Here's what the results show.

Delhi Elections: How & Why Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Top AAP Leaders Lost Their Seats

(Photo: The Quint)

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday, 8 February lost the Delhi Assembly elections after being at the helm for over a decade in the national capital, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made a historic comeback after 27 years.

However, more shocking for the AAP is four top leaders, including former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, deputy CM Manish Sisodia, and senior leaders Satyendar Jain and Saurabh Bhardwaj losing the election from their respective seats. Meanwhile, CM Atishi also registered a narrow victory.

What facrors led to their defeat? Here's a closer look at the performance of AAP's bigwigs:

Kejriwal Loses By Narrow Margin

AAP chief and former CM Kejriwal was up against Parvesh Singh of the BJP and Sandeep Dikshit of the Congress.

While Kejriwal lost by a narrow margin of 4,089 votes, Dikshit received 4,568 votes.

(Graphic: The Quint)

(Graphic: The Quint)

However, along with reasons like anti-incumbency against Kejriwal and Dikshit's impact, a careful analysis of Election Commission data shows this:

The total number of registered voters in Delhi increased by 4,16,648 in four years between the 2020 Assembly election and the 2024 Lok Sabha election, while an estimated 3,99,362 people were added to the rolls in just seven months between the May 2024 Lok Sabha election and the February 2025 Assembly election.

What does this mean and how may have this impacted the election outcome? to understand, read the full analysis here.

Congress Led to Manish Sisodia, Saurabh Bhardwaj's Defeat?

Deputy CM manish Sisodia lost the Jangpura by a very narrow margin of 675 votes against BJP's Tarvinder Singh Marwah.

In this seat too, the Congress played spoiler with Farhad Suri getting 7,350 votes.

(Graphic: The Quint)

(Graphic: The Quint)

Saurabh Bhardwaj, too, was defeated in Greater Kailash by a narrow margin of 3,188 votes against BJP's Shikha Roy, with Congress candidate Garvit Sanghvi getting 6,711 votes.

(Graphic: The Quint)

(Graphic: The Quint)

Satyendar Jain Loses Heavily

Satyendar Jain, another AAP leader jailed in the alleged excise policy scam, lost heavily to BJP's Karnail Singh with 20,998 votes.

For the latter half of his tenure, Jain mostly remained behind bars after he was arrested in May 2022, except for a period of 10 months when he was on medical bail.

(Graphic: The Quint)

Atishi Barely Makes it Past Finish Line, Gopal Rai Wins Big

CM Atishi, who registered a narrow victory by 3,521 votes, was up against BJP bigwig Ramesh Bidhuri and Congress' Alka Lamba.

While Atishi received 52,154 votes, Bidhuri received 48,633 votes.

(Graphic: The Quint)

Meanwhile, cabinet minister Gopal Rai is one of the few top AAP leaders who logged in a comfortable victory with a margin of 18,994 votes. He was up against Anil Kumar Vashisht of the BJP and Mohd Ishraq Khan of the Congress.

Anti-incumbency, the sway of middle class voters towards the BJP, impact of Congress in several seats, and the following for PM Narendra Modi among the voters of the national capital are being cited as some of the key reasons behind the AAP's defeat in Delhi.

Hours after the results started pouring in on Saturday, Kejriwal conceded defeat to say that the party will play the role of a "constructive opposition" and congratulated the BJP on its victory. He also thanked AAP supporters and party workers.