When Modi seemed invincible in 2015, following his victories in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Jammu after his stupendous 2014 parliamentary win, he suffered one of the most humiliating defeats of his political career in Delhi. His opponent then was not a battle-hardened army of seasoned politicians but a ragtag group of amateurs with just two years of political experience and a single assembly election behind them. Despite Modi pulling out all the stops, including deploying over 300 MPs to campaign in Delhi, AAP triumphed, securing 67 of the 70 seats. The BJP could manage only three.

The humiliation was repeated in 2020 when AAP once again inflicted a heavy defeat on the BJP by winning 62 seats. It stung Modi’s ego further, given that just six months prior, Modi had rewritten history by winning 303 seats in the general elections with an increased vote share. In the general elections, AAP had been reduced to the third position in Delhi, with just 18.11% of the vote share, trailing behind Congress, which secured 22%. Yet, in the assembly elections, AAP experienced a miraculous surge, increasing its vote share by 36% and winning 53.41% of the votes. The BJP did improve its vote share by more than 6%, but it could only secure eight seats.

Now, with the BJP facing a weaker national presence and struggling to secure a majority in the 2024 elections, can Modi........

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