The Congress's vote share was provisonally 4.31 per cent, the Election Commission said (File)
Yet another Delhi election, yet another humiliating defeat. The Congress's hopes for a revival in Delhi, riding on the late Sheila Dikshit's performance as chief minister, were dashed by the Aam Aadmi Party, which scored a landslide victory in the national capital. While the BJP saw a marginal increase in the number of seats in comparison to its 2015 tally of three seats, the Congress's electoral fate remained unchanged - it failed to even open its account.
Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party surged to power in Delhi for a third term today, boosted by a massive mandate of 62 seats - just a shade lower than its record 67 seats of 2015. The BJP improved its seat tally and vote share, winning 8 seats.
Adding salt to the Congress's wound is the fact that party which had ruled Delhi for 15 years couldn't cross the five per cent mark as far as vote share is concerned.
As per the latest Election Commission figures, the AAP has got 53.65 per cent of the votes polled in the February 8 elections, the BJP 38.47 per cent and the Congress 4.31 per cent, news agency IANS reported.
Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi described the results as "sad".
"First of all its very sad. Congress needs to find a homegrown leader in Delhi. A lot of work has been done by the Congress in Delhi. That has to be reminded. Otherwise, very sad, I have no words," he told NDTV.
"Knowing that we wouldn't have done well, if the Congress would have allied with the AAP for 10, 20, 30 seats, it would have worked out better maybe," he said.
63 of its candidates had to forfeit their security deposits, news agency PTI reported. Only Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Devender Yadav from Badli and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar - managed to save their deposits.
Security deposit of candidates is forfeited if they fail to secure one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency.
The Congress's campaign committee chairman Kirti Azad's wife, Poonam Azad, polled only 2,064 votes.
The Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra has resigned his post assuming moral responsibility for the party's debacle.
With inputs from PTI, IANS