NEW DELHI: With AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and his former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia losing their seats, the party faces its biggest challenge ever as it will now have to step into the role of an opposition for the first time in the face of a raging BJP that has come to office with a comfortable 48 seats.
Not just Kejriwal and Sisodia, most of AAP’s senior leadership didn’t make it to the assembly except for outgoing CM Atishi and AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai, who also held the environment portfolio.
Delhi Election Results 2025
Among the party biggies who bit the dust was the outgoing health and urban development minister, Saurabh Bharadwaj, who lost the Greater Kailash seat that he had held since 2013. Bharadwaj was not just an important minister but also a forceful party spokesperson.
Other prominent losers were former AAP health minister Satyendar Jain, who is out on bail, and deputy speaker Rakhi Birla.
After poll loss, AAP needs to find second line of leadership
In the last AAP cabinet, however, four of the six members managed to win their seats. Apart from Atishi and Rai, the other two winners were food and civil supplies minister Imran Hussain from Ballimaran and labour minister Mukesh Kumar Ahlawat from Sultanpur Majra. Among the losers was minister without portfolio Raghuvender Shokeen from Nangloi Jat.
When AAP was born out of the India Against Corruption movement in 2012, Kejriwal and Sisodia were seen as the pillars holding up the new outfit that entered the poll fray against the formidable three-time CM Sheila Dikshit. The subsequent rise of AAP saw the party fast become a one-man show with Kejriwal, supported by Sisodia, seen to be setting the agenda and the governance roadmap from the party’s first stint of 49 days, when it formed a minority govt with outside support from Congress in 2013. Even in the toughest times, when the party was under attack over the liquor scam – Kejriwal and Sisodia remained firmly together and joined forces in the poll campaign for the Delhi elections after they got bail.
Even the exit of some senior AAP leaders, including those who had served as ministers, could only rock the boat but not destabilise it. Kejriwal was seen to be helming the narrative as the CM even when he was in jail.
Kejriwal later resigned and decided to hand the baton to Atishi upon his release from jail in September last year. Yet, despite the strong messaging that Atishi was in command of the govt, it was the AAP national convener who was leading the show. He had said that would take on the role of CM only if AAP won the Delhi polls as a “certificate of honesty” from the people.
Now, with AAP having lost and Kejriwal no longer an MLA, AAP faces the challenge of nurturing a strong second line of leadership to lead the opposition charge and take on the BJP in the assembly. Only the days ahead will show how Kejriwal is able to keep his flock together now that they are out of power.
While both Atishi and Rai are trusted aides, which of the two will be chosen for the tough task of leader of opposition is something that will be carefully considered.
Atishi played a pivotal role in assisting Manish Sisodia in preparing the roadmap for strengthening the school infrastructure when he was education minister and then stepped in as a trusted minister before taking on the role of CM. Rai, besides being a minister, has been managing the organisation as the Delhi convener. Whoever is assigned the role of leader of opposition will face the challenge of keeping the MLAs together as AAP is now vulnerable to MLAs being poached and fissures emerging within the party over leadership issues.
Satyendar Jain, who lost from Shakur Basti, was one of the first ministers to be arrested. Jain was instrumental in steering flagship schemes like mohalla clinics. Like other party stalwarts, Jain had retained his seat since 2013.
Somnath Bharti is another prominent AAP figure who fell by the wayside, losing from Malviya Nagar to former Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay.
AAP’s MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak who contested from Rajendra Nagar assembly seat also lost by a narrow margin of 1,231 votes to BJP’s Umang Bajaj. Pathak is also currently the member of the party’s political affairs committee.
