BJP says it lost in Delhi despite increase in vote share as contest became bipolar

The BJP increased its vote share in the Delhi Assembly polls but lost out to the AAP as the contest became bipolar, the party said after a review of its performance on Thursday.

BJP president J P Nadda held the review meeting with the party's Delhi unit head Manoj Tiwari and general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party, led by Arvind Kejriwal, won 62 of the 70 assembly seats in Delhi, while the BJP bagged the remaining eight seats. The Congress, which had governed the national capital for 15 years before the AAP, failed to win a single seat.

The meeting observed that the party fought the February 8 election with its full strength and reached voters across the national capital, according to sources.

"In future, the party should prepare itself for bipolar contest in the national capital," one of the sources stated.

"It was felt that though the BJP's vote share, along with that of its allies, increased by 8 per cent but the contest became bipolar which cost the BJP," the source added.

For further analysing the Delhi assembly elections, a number of meetings will be held at the party's Delhi office on Friday, the sources said.

According to the sources, the meeting lasted for over two hours and was attended by almost all BJP general secretaries.

On Wednesday, Nadda had held a meeting with party general secretaries to discuss the election results.