Counting votes for Delhi’s 70 Assembly constituencies began amid tight security at 19 locations across the national capital on Saturday, February 8.
Counting of votes for the Delhi Assembly polls is underway in the battle for glory between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The battle will decide whether the AAP comes to power for a fourth term or the BJP forms a government in the national capital after more than 26 years.
The AAP established its dominance in Delhi’s political map routing both the BJP and Congress in 2015 Assembly polls, winning 67 of the 70 Assembly seats.
The party again formed its government in 2020, winning 62 seats and decimating the opposition BJP and Congress.
A victory for the AAP will establish Kejriwal’s dominance in Delhi and enhance his political stature nationally. However, if the BJP wins the polls, it will not only be back to power in Delhi after a long gap of over 26 years, but also succeed in breaking the spell of AAP and Kejriwal that it has been vying for a decade.
The results will reveal if AAP’s political dominance in Delhi remains intact or is dented enough by the BJP for the saffron party to return to power for the first time since 1998.
The Congress, which governed Delhi from 1998 to 2013, is looking to stage a comeback after failing to win a single seat in the previous two elections.
Several exit polls have given the BJP an edge over the AAP, which has been ruling in Delhi since 2015.
Shahdara, Central Delhi, East, South, and Southwest districts will each have one counting station. The North, West, Northeast, and Southeast districts will each have two counting stations, while the New Delhi and Northwest districts will have three counting stations each.
According to the Election Commission, 60.54 per cent votes were polled on Wednesday.
Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Alice Vaz said 5,000 personnel, including supervisors and assistants, micro-observers, and support staff trained for the process, had been deployed for the exercise.
According to the Conduct of Election Rules, postal ballots will be counted first and the process of counting of votes recorded in electronic voting machines (EVMs) begins 30 minutes later.
After that, the counting of votes cast through postal ballots and EVMs will continue simultaneously.
Since 2019, VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) slips from five randomly selected polling stations per assembly constituency are matched with the EVM count for greater transparency.
Delhi, with 1.55 crore eligible voters, recorded a turnout of 60.54 per cent in the February 5 election.
A three-tier security arrangement with 10,000 police personnel, including two companies of paramilitary forces at each centre, has been put in place.
Delhi has 70 constituencies for its Legislative Assembly. The magic number to form a majority is 36 seats.
| Parties | Win/Lead |
| BJP | 33 |
| AAP | 36 |
| INC | 1 |
| Others | – |
8:00 am: Counting of votes begins. BJP leads.
8:30 am: The Election Commision of India gives leads to the BJP in 2 constituencies in early trends.
Om Prakash Sharma of the BJP leads in Vishawas Nagar and Sanjay Goyal leads in Shadara as per early trands of the ECI.
8:45 am: AAP, BJP, Congress candidates visit temples, offer prayers ahead of Delhi assembly results
9:00 am: According to the latest trends being run by television channels, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who is pitted against the BJP’s Parvesh Verma in the New Delhi seat, was trailing.
In the Kalkaji seat, Chief Minister Atishi was trailing the BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri.
Former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was also trailing in Jangpura.
The BJP’s Karawal Nagar candidate Kapil Mishra was leading while AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj was ahead in the Greater Kailash seat.
