GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 9th Feb. In a historic achievement, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not only swept the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections by securing 48 of the 70 seats but has also made significant inroads among the Dalit voter base, a constituency that has traditionally supported Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
In a major shift, the BJP has claimed six out of the 16 seats where the Scheduled Caste (SC) community has a significant presence. Dalits, comprising 16.5 percent of Delhi’s population according to the 2011 census, are the second-largest voting bloc after the Upper Castes. The BJP’s breakthrough in these areas is a noteworthy development, as Dalit voters in Delhi have predominantly backed Congress from 1993 to 2008 and AAP from 2013 to 2020.
For the first time since the 1993 Assembly elections, when BJP secured power but lost several Dalit-majority constituencies, the party has successfully contested and won several Dalit-heavy seats. This time, however, the BJP wrested four out of the 12 reserved SC seats, three of which have more than 25 percent Dalit population. Additionally, the BJP has claimed two other seats, Rajinder Nagar and Wazirpur, where Dalits make up over 20 percent of the electorate.
Notable defeats for the AAP came in the form of prominent Dalit candidates. Rakhi Birla, a sitting MLA from Mangol Puri, lost to BJP’s Kailash Gangwal by nearly 10,900 votes in the Madipur constituency. Senior Congress leader Rajesh Lilothia also faced defeat in Seema Puri, finishing third. On the other hand, BJP’s Dushyant Gautam lost in Karol Bagh, with AAP’s Vishesh Ravi retaining the seat.
The shift in Dalit support towards BJP is significant, as the party had previously managed to gain Dalit votes at the Lok Sabha level but failed to replicate that success in the Delhi Assembly elections. Experts believe the rise in Dalit support for the BJP mirrors the party’s success in Haryana during the 2024 state elections, where Dalit votes were split along sub-caste lines, particularly between the better-off Jatav/Chamar Dalits and smaller communities such as Balmikis.
In Delhi, the Jatav/Chamar Dalits, accounting for 38 percent of the total Dalit population, played a crucial role in the BJP’s success. The areas where the BJP saw substantial gains, including Mangol Puri, Bawana, Wazirpur, and Madipur, are areas with a higher Chamar population, while Balmikis, who form 21 percent of the Dalit population, are concentrated in other regions.
Interestingly, Rajinder Nagar, which lies in New Delhi, saw a different pattern. Here, the Balmiki population is more dominant (48 percent) than the Chamar population (15 percent), but the BJP still managed to win the seat, marking another shift in voter trends.
Meanwhile, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which had hoped to capitalize on Dalit support, saw a drop in its vote share, from 0.7 percent in 2020 to 0.58 percent in 2025, signaling a further erosion of its influence in Delhi’s Dalit community.
With its newly strengthened position among Dalit voters, the BJP is poised to leverage this newfound support to further consolidate its position in Delhi’s political landscape, marking a historic shift in the city’s voting dynamics.
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