During the 2008 Delhi elections, Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party secured 14 per cent vote share, winning two seats and ending up as runner-up in five. The Lok Jan Shakti Party won one. That was the last best performance by regional parties in the national capital in the otherwise mostly bipolar contest.
The 2025 assembly elections are unlikely to be any different.
There are nearly 700 candidates in the fray in the current round of Delhi elections. New Delhi seat has become the hotly contested seat from where former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is seeking votes for the fourth time. There are a total of 23 candidates in the fray for the seat, which includes BJP’s Parvesh Verma and Congress’ Sandeep Dikshit. As the constituency covers most of Lutyens Bungalow Zone and seat of power of national government, many smaller parties and those with political interest prefer it, given the seat’s low number of voters.
During the 1993 elections, when the BJP formed the government, the Janata Dal had won four seats while three independent candidates too got elected. That was the best-ever performance by non-BJP and non-Congress parties. By the next polls in 1998, Janata Dal got one while two were won by independents. In 2003, Janata Dal (Secular) and NCP won one each.
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Tide turned in 2013 when a newbie, AAP, helmed by anti-corruption crusader Arvind Kejriwal emerged on the scene with a bang, breaking the bi-polarity in the national capital. During that elections, JD(U) and Akali Dal won one each as they were NDA allies. In subsequent polls in 2015, AAP swept the polls wiping out the votebanks of all parties, including the smaller players. The same trend continued in the 2020 polls when AAP secured 62 seats and BJP eight.
The smaller parties representing different communities and regional identities have not been able to survive against the onslaught of the stronger national parties – BJP, AAP and Congress.
Given the massive outreach by the mainstream parties and promises of sops, they get a natural advantage over smaller parties and independents. As the amount of money needed to contest keeps increasing, electoral politics offer little succour to marginal players.
The BSP is again contesting all the seats owing to the presence of Dalit voters in all seats. Even Ajit Pawar-led NCP is also contesting from 60 seats, despite little chance of winning. The reason for these parties to contest is to gather a crucial number of votes which will then make them claim the status of a state or a national party.
With its 3.2 crore population, Delhi is a melting pot of cultures and regional identities, but those aspirations can only realised through the three main parties which are in contention, so smaller parties and independents hardly stand a chance. As these elections are going to be keenly contested, the candidates from smaller outfits in some seats can influence the outcome if they get a higher percentage of votes.
