AAP eyes big win, BJP hopes for high score, Congress seeks resurgence
NEW DELHI : While AAP is eyeing a big win in Delhi Assembly election 2020, the BJP is hoping to topple the Arvind Kejriwal-led government. On the other hand, the down-and-out Congress is seeking a resurgence after scoring a big zero in the 2015 Delhi election.
It promises to be a humdinger and the two main rivals – the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and principal opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are claiming that a vast majority of the 62.59 per cent of Delhi voters have pressed the button of their symbol during the February 8 Assembly election.
Exit polls predicted that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by Arvind Kejriwal, will win a clear majority and be back in power, defeating the BJP which rules at the centre. Rubbishing the exit polls, the BJP’s Manoj Tiwari claimed that his party would win the election with precisely 48 seats and said other parties should not make the excuse of EVM tampering for their defeat.
The counting of votes will begin at 8 am on Tuesday (February 11) at 21 counting centres across Delhi and the final result is expected by later afternoon.
All eyes will be on these counting centres across Delhi where postal ballots and electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be opened and votes tallied to declare the winners of the 70 Assembly constituencies of the national capital.
“We have set up 21 centres for counting of votes, wherein there will be a dedicated hall for every constituency. The counting will start at 8 am on February 11,” Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ranbir Singh had said on February 9.
The 21 centres are situated in nine of the 11 districts of the city. The districts with counting centres are — North, South West, South East, and Shahdara. There is one each in New Delhi, South, East, North East and North West districts.
The counting of votes and results on each of the 70 seats will be declared live on the websites of the Election Commission– eciresults.nic.in, eci.gov.in and results.eci.gov.in. The audience of Zee News can follow the coverage of the big event on the TV channel as well as zeenews.india.com.
The exit polls by different pollsters and the Zee News Maha Exit Poll predict a massive victory for the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP with the BJP a distant second and Congress not even in the reckoning. AAP is expected to retain power with 55 seats while BJP would bag 14 and Congress just 1.
The security deployed at the strong rooms is multi-layered including police and paramilitary forces. The overall voting witnessed a massive dip as compared to the 2015 Delhi Assembly election when 67.1 per cent of the electorate had cast their votes.
Ballimaran assembly constituency which comes under Chandni Chowk recorded the highest voter turnout of 71.6 per cent, said Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh. The lowest voter turnout was recorded at Delhi Cantonment which stood at 45.4 per cent.
The AAP had registered a landslide victory in 2015 elections getting 67 of 70 seats. The BJP had won three seats while Congress failed to open its account. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari refused to believe the exit poll predictions, and Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit also scoffed at them. However, AAP leaders were upbeat about the results.
The Congress was in power in Delhi between 1998 and 2013 but drew a blank in the 2015 polls. Congress contested the Delhi Assembly polls in alliance with the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD). It fielded candidates on 66 seats leaving four for the RJD. The AAP seeks to retain power on the development plank against the BJP that ran a campaign centred around the issues of anti-CAA protests and nationalism.
Meanwhile,Controversial BJP leader Kapil Mishra has said that the saffron party will form the government in the national capital. He tweeted, ” [Tomorrow BJP is forming the government in Delhi. Jai Shri Ram].”
Polling for the 70-seat Delhi Assembly took place on Saturday and a Kapil Mishra has made several controversial remarks during campaigning and was also pulled up by the Election Commission.
He had said AAP should be renamed Muslim League. “The new name of the Aam Aadmi Party should be Muslim League. Umar Khalid, Afzal Guru, Burhan Wani… and those who consider terrorists as their father are afraid of Yogi Adityanath,” Kapil Mishra had written on Twitter.
The BJP candidate from Delhi’s Model Town constituency, Kapil Mishra, was banned by the Election Commission from campaigning for 48 hours after he had said that Delhi will witness Indian vs Pakistan on February 8, referring to the voting for the assembly poll on that day.
Kapil Mishra in a tweet had said that “India and Pakistan will compete on the streets of Delhi on February 8”.Kapil Mishra had also chanted ‘desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maro sa**n ko’ at one of the pro-CAA rallies.
(With Agency Inputs ).
