Delhi goes to polls today

BJP, AAP in bitter battle; Kejri rejects Imam's support

Delhi goes to polls on Saturday to elect a new 70-member Assembly in a grudge fight between the BJP and the AAP to settle the scores of the 2013 election in which both the parties prevented each other from securing a majority.

For the AAP, it has been a great comeback from the poor show in the Lok Sabha elections last year. 

For the BJP, which has ridden high on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity in four other state polls, its future in the capital is at stake as the party has not occupied the treasury benches for 16 years.

On the eve of the polls, Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari appealed to Muslims to vote for AAP to defeat communal forces but the Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit said it did not need any help on communal lines.

The BJP seized the opportunity and accused the AAP of indulging in communal politics to polarise votes.

The national interest in the outcome of the Delhi Assembly election could be gauged from the support given to the AAP by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, the Left parties and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.

As things stand on Friday, the Delhi election appears to be a clash between the BJP and the rest. The Congress is down but is hoping to bounce back on vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s charisma.

The BJP does not want the election result on February 10 to be seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s performance. 

The saffron party took a big risk by pitting Kiran Bedi — a former anti-corruption campaigner of Anna Hazare movement and a former cop — against Kejriwal for the chief minister’s post but created scope for blaming Bedi if the party fails to win.

The pollsters have given a thumbs-up to the AAP but the BJP and the Congress claim that the unfavourable surveys are not telling the real story.

The voting on Saturday, between 8 am and 6 pm, will mark the second Assembly poll in the city in 14 months. Since the December 2013 Assembly poll, the number of electorate has jumped from 1.19 crore to 1.33 crore now. Nearly 43,235 voters have already cast their postal ballot for the coming election. 

A total of 673 candidates, including 63 women, are in the fray and 18,000 electronic voting machines will be used in 12,177 polling stations. 

The election office has identified 714 polling locations as “critical” and 191 have been categorised as “highly critical”. Nearly 95,000 government officials, including 55,000 policemen and paramilitary personnel, would help conduct the exercise.

The Matiala constituency has the largest number of electorate at 3,47,245 and Chandni Chowk the lowest at 1,13,777. There are 2,27,316 voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years.

For the poll officials and voters, the Delhi Metro and the Delhi Transport Corporation will begin services at 4 am on the voting day.

The voting percentage will be critical for the outcome. The turnout in 2013 Assembly poll was 65.6 percent and the turnout in 2014 Lok Sabha poll was 65.07 percent. Election department officials are expecting about 10 per cent increase in the turnout in this Assembly polls as compared to the 2013 contest.

The last Assembly election resulted in a hung House with BJP and its ally Akali Dal winning 32 seats, AAP 28 seats and the Congress bagging eight.