New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) On the eve of the declaration of Delhi Assembly election results, high political drama and posturing added to the suspense as both BJP and the AAP exuded confidence of forming the next government while the latter alleged attempts to poach its nominees.
Despite most exit polls giving a clear majority to the BJP in the 70-member Assembly, the AAP refused to believe the pollsters as its National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal cited alleged attempts to poach his party’s candidates to claim that the bid showed that the BJP was likely to fall short of the majority mark of 36.
Political analysts are eagerly waiting for the results as these would reflect the vote-pulling charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal.
A victory for the BJP would end the party’s 27-year exile from Delhi Darbar while a drubbing for the AAP may end its three-elections winning streak and precipitate a crisis of survival for the party which emerged from the anti-corruption campaign of Anna Hazare in 2011.
While both the BJP and the AAP claimed that they would win a clear majority, the Congress hoped that it would open its account in the Assembly after ending up with a blank in the last two outings. In the outgoing Assembly, the AAP has 62 MLAs and the BJP has 8.
The counting of votes will begin on Saturday amid tight security at 8 a.m. at 11 counting stations with each centre handling EVMs from five to eight Assembly segments, said a Delhi election official.
The entire process is likely to be completed before noon, said the official, who added that since the voting on February 5 the EVMs have been stored in 70 strong rooms under three-tier security and round-the-clock CCTV watch.
The fate of former CM Kejriwal and his challengers – BJP’s Parvesh Verma and Congress’ Sandeep Dikshit – will be decided in the New Delhi constituency’s counting centre in Gole Market.
Votes of Chief Minister Atishi’s Kalkaji seat and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s Jangpura constituency will be counted at Maharani Bagh.
On the eve of the counting of votes, the AAP continued to attack the BJP for an alleged bid to poach its candidates. In response, the BJP denied the allegations and Vishnu Mittal, General Secretary of Delhi BJP, wrote to L-G V.K. Saxena, seeking a formal investigation and registration of an FIR against AAP leaders.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal convened a meeting of all legislators of the AAP at his residence in what the party called an attempt to keep its flock together in view of the alleged poaching attempts by the BJP.
Within hours of the BJP’s complaint to the L-G, sleuths of the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) tried to speak to Kejriwal at his residence in central Delhi but were denied entry into the premises.
The ACB officials said that they wanted the AAP chief to provide a list of 16 party candidates who were allegedly offered a bribe in the poaching bid. They also wanted the former chief minister to share the phone numbers from which the AAP candidates had received the calls.
Allegations of alleged bid to poach AAP candidates continued to swirl on Friday with the AAP parading its candidates who claimed to be receiving calls from BJP leaders.
AAP nominee from Dwarka Vinay Mishra said a person claiming to be from ‘Gaali Galoch Party’ met him on Thursday and offered Rs 15 crore to join his party before the announcement on Saturday.
He said he rejected the offer and vowed to remain with Arvind Kejriwal.
Earlier, continuing his attacks on the Election Commission for alleged lapses, Kejriwal in a post on X claimed that the poll panel had refused to upload Form 17 C and number of votes polled per booth on the website – a charge denied by officials.
The ECI said they followed all rules and were under no obligation to post the matter on any website as the documents had been given to polling agents.
Office of Delhi CEO R. Alice Vaz responded by posting a message on social media saying: “As per Rule 49S of the Conduct of Election Rules 1961, all the Presiding Officer had furnished the account of votes recorded in Form 17C to polling agent present at the polling station on the day of poll, February 5, 2025. The rule has been complied with, in letter and spirit, at every polling station.”
On Thursday, the CEO had scrutinised election documents, including Form 17C of all 70 constituencies, and announced that in the absence of any complaint from candidates there was no need for a repoll on any seat.
The majority number in the 70-member Assembly is 36.
In 2020, the AAP won 62 out of 70 seats. The BJP won eight seats.
In 2015, the AAP won 67 seats, getting 54.6 per cent vote share.
In the Lok Sabha elections in May, the BJP had got 54 per cent of the vote share in all the 70 Assembly segments. The Congress had performed better than the AAP and garnered 24 per cent vote share against the latter’s 19 per cent.
The turnout in the February 5 Delhi Assembly election was 60.42 per cent.
The turnout in the 2020 Delhi Assembly election stood at 62.82 per cent, 4.65 per cent lower than 67.47 per cent in 2015.
–IANS
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