148 candidates lose deposit, BSP down to 0.7% vote share in Delhi

In the 2024 Delhi elections, AAP and Congress formed an alliance against BJP, making it a two-party race. BSP suffered its worst defeat with only 0.7% of the votes.

In the 2024 general elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress joined hands in Delhi to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which effectively turned the polls in the Capital into a bipolar contest.

BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde and Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak welcome former BSP MP Sangeeta Azad into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi on March 18. (ANI)

This move, however, sounded the death knell for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has been nearly wiped out from the city.

According to data released by the Election Commission of India, the BJP — which won all seven seats in the Capital — received 54.35% of the votes. The AAP, which only contested on four seats, had 24.17% of the vote share, while the Congress, which contested from three seats, received 18.91% of the votes.

These three parties had put up a cumulative 14 nominees from the total 162 candidates in the fray. All remaining 148 candidates lost their security deposits — the rules state that a candidate must achieve at least one-sixth (16.67%) of the total polled votes in a constituency to retain their security deposit, which is ₹25,000 for general and ₹12,500 for Scheduled Caste candidates.

All other players in the fray — the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) and other, smaller participants, along with independent candidates — have also been decimated.

A new low for BSP

The EC data revealed the diminishing presence of the BSP in the Capital — the party has been reduced to just 62,315 (0.7%) of the votes polled in the city, with its best-known candidate, former AAP minister Raaj Kumar Anand, managing to get just 5,629 votes from the New Delhi constituency.

The BSP made its poll debut in Delhi in the 1989 general elections, with founder Kanshi Ram contesting from the East Delhi parliamentary constituency and receiving 11.2% of the votes. The party’s presence grew stronger in the city, peaking at 14% of the vote share in the 2008 assembly polls — an election in which it also managed to win two seats.

However, it has been all downhill from there, with the party receiving 1.23% of the vote share in the 2014 polls and 1.08% of the vote share in the 2019 elections, culminating in the 2024 polls — its worst ever showing in the city.

BSP Delhi president Laxman Singh said, “We will renew our commitment and prepare to fight on all 70 seats in the coming Delhi assembly elections.”