Arvind Kejriwal accuses BJP of ‘hijacking & murdering democracy’ after West Bengal, Assam win

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday hit out at the Bhartiya Janata Party, accusing it of "hijacking and murdering democracy." He also raised an alarm over the decisive victory of the BJP in West Bengal and Assam. Reacting to his loss in the 2025 Delhi Assembly polls, Arvind Kejriwal accused the BJP of using measures like voter list deletions to undermine rivals, alleging similar tactics were repeated in West Bengal.

Addressing AAP Punjab MLAs in New Delhi, Kejriwal said, "The way the Bharatiya Janata Party has hijacked and murdered democracy...For the past three or four months, we've been watching the chaos unfold in Bengal. They did the same in Bihar and Maharashtra."

"In my own assembly (New Delhi Assembly Constituency), before I went to jail, there were 1,48,000 votes. When I returned, there were 1,06,000 votes left. They got 42,000 votes cut within six months. I won by 30,000 votes last time. 42,000 votes were cancelled. I lost by 3,000 votes. How can you win? When you cancel all the votes, nothing will be left. This same chaos is going on throughout the country. Today, democracy is in crisis," the former Delhi CM added.

BJP's historic win in Bengal

The BJP secured a historic win in Bengal with 206 seats, outperforming its 77-seat tally in the 2021 Assembly elections. Trinamool Congress, which had won 212 seats, finished a distant second with 80 seats.

In Assam, the NDA registered a sweeping victory, with the BJP alone crossing a two-thirds majority. Its allies, Bodoland Peoples Front and Asom Gana Parishad, won 10 seats each, while the Indian National Congress secured 15. The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) won one seat and the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) two. In a setback for Congress, party leader Gaurav Gogoi lost the Jorhat constituency to BJP's Hitendra Nath Goswami by 23,182 votes.