eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE The Urban Tribe While dating sites have lost their sheen, meetup platforms are the new convergence grounds AHMEDABAD,LATECITY FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT FEBRUARY9,2025 18+4PAGES,`6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA DELHI ASSEMBLY 70 36 12 Total Seats VERDICT 2025 Majority mark PARTY-WISE VOTE SHARE IN ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS Muslimdominatedseats (Total:7) BJP BJP 48 22 (▲ 40) BJP AAP 2025 45.56% 43.57% 6.34% INC 38.51% 53.57% 4.26% 3.66% 2015 32.19% 54.34% 9.65% 2025 2020 6 SCseats (Total12) BJP AAP 4.53% 2020 (▼40) (▲▼) Change in seats from 2020 TotalSC Seats 1 AAP AAP ■ BJP ■ AAP Others 3.82% 4 8 Source:ECdata AAP OUSTED, CONG STUCK AT ZERO, VOTERS HAND OVER CAPITAL’S KEYS TO BJP AFTER 27 YEARS Aam aadmi verdict: BJP for Delhi ‘WILL RETURN LOVE WITH VIKAS’ 5-fold jump in BJP seats: PM promises to build modern city BJP workers celebrate in New Delhi on Saturday. Praveen Khanna MALLICA JOSHI, JATIN ANAND, GAYATHRI MANI & SAMAN HUSAIN NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 8 ENDING ITS 27-year exile from power in the national Capital and handing the ruling AAP a stunning defeat, the BJP swept the Delhi Assembly elections Saturday, bagging 48 of the 70 seats in the House. The remaining 22 seats went to AAP while the Congress drew a blank for the third time in a row. AAP leader and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia were among the prominent leaders who lost. Of the AAP tally of 22 – down from 67 and 62 seats in 2015 and 2020 respectively – most came from the reserved constituencies (8 out of 12) and Muslimmajority seats (6 out of 7). Thanking thepeople of Delhi for reposing faith in the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a gathering at thepartyheadquarters hours after the verdict, said, “Delhi has liberated itself from a decade of AAPda (calamity)... Delhi’s voters have shown the truth to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president J P Nadda celebrate the victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, at the party headquarters in the Capital on Saturday. Praveen Khanna BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 8 OPTIONS: MP, NEW MLA, SURPRISE PICK Who will be Delhi CM? VERDICT With high stakes, BJP weighs in many factors 2025 DELHI JATIN ANAND & GAYATHRI MANI NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 8 BALANCING GENDER, caste and community with experience, its vision of a “Delhi befitting the status of India's capital city” and consolidating, for the future, a political mandate that has eluded it for close to three decades — these are the factors that are likely to guide the BJP's decision while picking its Delhi Chief Minister, according to party sources. According to sources, discussions on a potential CM began soon after the announcement of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 In 13 seats, Congress tally more than AAP’s margin of loss ANJISHNU DAS & LALMANI VERMA CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 theparty'sfinallistof candidates in January, coinciding with the beginning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public meetings in the city later that month. So far, the discussions are learnt to have revolved around possibilities ranging from picking one of its seven Lok Sabha MPsfromtheCapital—sixof the seven are first-time Parliamentarians — to choosing one of its new legislators with the highest victory margin, especially a woman leader, for the post. In addition, sources said, the selection of “more than one deputy chief minister” was also a possibility. INCLUDES ARVIND KEJRIWAL, MANISH SISODIA SEATS ● Behind BJP’s Capital SEVERAL AAP stalwarts, including Arvind Kejriwal, lost by margins smaller than the votes secured by the Congress in their seats. In all, there were 13 such seats out of 70. Incidentally, the Congress failedtoopenitsaccountinDelhi ● Tracing AAP map, ONE REFRAIN in the BJP’s election campaignin states has been its rhetoric around the benefits of a “double engine” — the party in power in the state working with the NDA-ruled Centre. In Delhi, this rhetoric rings closer home to reality. Indeed, the BJP’s electoral PAGES 10-14 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 engine’ on parallel tracks? APURVA VISHWANATH ● Cong sees silver lining in AAP loss The deserted AAP office in New Delhi on Saturday. Tashi Tobgyal Kejriwall crumbled: BATTLELINES BLUR City falling apart, graft Delhi L-G vs CM: Now ‘double cloud, blame game... comeback after 27 years where it is still standing Kejriwal’s New Delhi seat was one of 13 where the AAP defeat margin was less than votes for Congress . ANI for the third time in a row. If Kejriwal lost from New Delhi, Manish Sisodia was defeated from Jangpura, Saurabh BharadwajfromGreaterKailash, Somnath Bharti from Malviya Nagar and Durgesh Pathak from Rajinder Nagar, all seats where theCongressgotmorevotesthan the defeat margin of the AAP. BJP’sParveshVermadefeated Kejriwal—theAAPchiefhadwon AAP TALLY FALLS FROM 62 TO 22 SEATS NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 8 victory Saturday sets the stage for easing of the prolonged legal tussle over the state’s “unique constitutional status” between the Centre and theformerAamAadmiParty-led government. As it stands now, Article 239AAof theConstitution,keeps services, land, police and public order out of the control of the elected government. While the pre-eminence of the Lieutenant Governor (LG) was accepted in land, police and public order, theissueof servicescontinuedto beakeyareaof conflict between the Centre and the state. Two Constitution benches of the Supreme Court had twice, in 2017andagainin2023,accepted the Delhi government’s position CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MALLICA JOSHI & JATIN ANAND NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 8 IN APRIL 2024, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, his former deputy Manish Sisodia, former health minister Satyendar Jain, communicationsin-chargeVijayNair and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh were in jail. The party’s toughestelectoralbattlewasjust 10 months away. Saturday’s results indicate the missing leadership had a more significant impact on the party than it let on. While Jain was arrested in an alleged money laundering case, the rest were behind bars in the excise policy case being probed by the ED and CBI. All of them were released on bail between August and October. Senior partyleaders saidthat the stints in jail, so close to the elections, was among the key reasonsfortheAAPbeingunable CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Did 33 Gujaratis take legal route to intermediate countries? Police to probe PAGE 1 ANCHOR ADITI RAJA VADODARA, FEBRUARY 8 IT SEEMS that the troubles for thosedeportedbackfromtheUS earlier this week are notgoing to end any time soon. The Gujarat police will carry out an investigation into whether the deportees used “irregular ways” to get visas to the intermediate countries from where they were supposed to finally land in the United States as illegal immigrants. Of the 104 people deported from the US as “illegal aliens” afterPresidentDonaldTrumptook over earlier this week, 33 were from Gujarat, includingfamilies, couples and children mostly from districts in the northern part of the state. Gujaratstatepolicehasasked the Superintendents of Police (SPs) of the home districts of the 33 US deportees to conduct a “detailedinvestigation”oncethe deportees have “recovered” from the “trauma” of detention, expulsion, and finally deportation in a US military aircraft. Although a release by the state government on Thursday had stated that the deportees should be dealt with “sensitivity and empathy”, with arrangements made by the police department for their transport backtotheirhometowns,the33 Gujarat natives will be asked to record detailed statements of their travel in the coming days. Senior police officers confirmedthattheSPsof thedistrict from where the deportees hail Earlier this week, a US military plane carrying 104 Indians, including 33 from Gujarat, landed in Amritsar, Punjab. PTI have been asked to begin investigation into the “means by which” the individuals travelled abroad. “The deportees are too scattered across the state and not part of a single modus operandi or a single group that sneaked in together. They are people who crossed over to the US from different places at times. So, even if there is a case, it will not be a common onefor all. Therefore,it willbesimplerif thelocaldistrict police probe the matter and register separate FIRs, if the need be,” a senior Gujarat police offi- cial said. AnofficerfromNorthGujarat said that individual deportees will be asked to share documentsonthebasisof whichthey applied for visas to the intermediatecountries.Hesaid,“Wewill record their detailed statements in the days to come... The main question for the probe is whether they used forged documents to acquire visas of the intermediate countries. While most of them have valid passportsasthebasicverificationhas alreadyhappenedduringdeportation, the trail of documents used to reach their destination and the intermediate countries will be a subject of probe.” The officer further said that in several cases, agents tend to facilitate forged documents to acquire visas in intermediate countries. He said, “We have come across a couple of cases where the visa acquired was for long stay in two intermediate countries as the passage to the US border is not an instant process ... In these cases, the agents likely acquire forged CONTINUEDONPAGE2 RELATEDREPORTONPAGE4 Ahmedabad