New Delhi, Feb. 9 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday broke a 27-year-old jinx to storm to power in the Capital with a two-thirds majority, trouncing the Aam Aadmi Party in the year's first electoral contest that will have deep reverberations on national politics.

The BJP won 48 out of Delhi's 70 seats on the back of a grounded campaign that eschewed incendiary rhetoric to amplify grassroots disenchantment with crumbling infrastructure and faltering civic services, ending the 10-year-long rule of the AAP.

Buckling under the weight of anti-incumbency, corruption allegations and frustration about stalled development works, the AAP shed nearly two-thirds of its 2020 tally of 62, winning just 22 seats in elections that became a ...