The Delhi Assembly election results were a rejection of Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s politics of “deceit” and “deception”, not a “vindication of the policies” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the Congress on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the Congress failed to win a single seat in the Delhi Assembly for the third consecutive time. The Bharatiya Janata Party defeated the Aam Aadmi Party, securing 48 seats in the 70-member Assembly. The AAP bagged 22 constituencies, showed data from the Election Commission.

The halfway mark to gain a majority in the Delhi Assembly is 36 seats.

The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress contested the polls separately even though they are members of the Opposition INDIA bloc at the national level. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Aam Aadmi Party-Congress alliance lost all seven parliamentary seats in Delhi to the BJP.

“The 2025 Delhi Vidhan Sabha election results reflect nothing more than a referendum on Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party,” said Congress leader Jairam Ramesh in a social media post. “After all, at the height of the prime minister’s popularity in 2015 and 2020, AAP had won decisively in Delhi.”

He added: “This shows that, rather than being vindication of the policies of the prime minister, this vote is a rejection of Arvind Kejriwal’s politics of deceit, deception, and vastly exaggerated claims of achievement.”

The Rajya Sabha MP also stated that the Congress was expecting to perform better. The party may not be in the Delhi Assembly, but is “definitely a presence” in the national capital, he said.

“A presence that will be expanded electorally with the sustained efforts of lakhs of Congress workers,” added Ramesh. “There will be a Congress government once again in Delhi in 2030.”

After the Assembly election results were declared, several reports pointed out that the Congress undercut the Aam Aadmi Party in 14 key seats.

Scroll reported that the BJP won all 14 seats, with a victory margin in each constituency that was lower than the votes polled by the Congress in those segments.

Dismissing this, party leader Pawan Khera said the Aam Aadmi Party did not get “lectures on Opposition unity” when it contested Assembly polls against the Congress in Goa, Gujarat and Haryana.

“Delhi election result is a rejection of the Trojan horse that attempted to damage the liberal cause across the country,” said Khera.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge stated that while his party “created an atmosphere against” the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi, “the public did not give us the mandate as expected”.

“We accept the public opinion,” he said. “In the coming days, we will continue to raise the issues of pollution, Yamuna cleaning, electricity, roads, water and development in Delhi and will remain connected with the public.”

Party leader Rahul Gandhi also stated that the Congress had accepted the mandate of Delhi’s voters. “This fight for the progress of Delhi and the rights of Delhiites – against pollution, inflation and corruption – will continue,” Gandhi said on social media.

The polling in Delhi was held on Wednesday and the provisional voter turnout was 60.4%, according to the Election Commission.

With its victory, the BJP will return to power in Delhi after 26 years.

The Aam Aadmi Party has been in power in the national capital since 2013, except for a year of president’s rule between 2014 and 2015.

In September, Kejriwal stepped down as the chief minister and was replaced by party leader Atishi. Kejriwal said that he will return to the post only after voters have expressed their support for him in the Assembly polls.

Kejriwal’s resignation came a week after he was released on bail in the Delhi liquor policy case. He had been arrested in March ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

In the 2020 polls, the Aam Aadmi Party won 62 seats with a 53.8% vote share. The remaining eight seats were won by the BJP, which secured 38.7% of the votes. With a 4.3% vote share, the Congress failed to win any seat.

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