Delhi votes to elect 70-member Assembly; AAP hopes to retain power, BJP aims to wrest it

The national capital this year is going to see a triangular contest between AAP, Congress and BJP which has campaigned very actively ahead of the election. A total of 668 candidates will be contesting the Delhi Assembly election 2020.

The voting for the Delhi Assembly Election 2020 is scheduled to take place, on Saturday (February 8), and the Delhi poll body had already geared up for assembly polls. The security arrangements have been tightened and with around two and a half lakh (2,50,000) Delhi Police and Paramilitary Force personnel deployed at the voting areas. The voting for 70 assembly seats will begin at  8 am and continue till 6 pm but those in the queue at polling booths will be allowed to exercise their franchise even after the allotted time for polling.

The national capital this year is going to see a triangular contest between AAP, Congress and BJP which has campaigned very aggressively ahead of the election. A total of 668 candidates will be contesting the Delhi Assembly election 2020. 

Out of its 70 candidates, the ruling Aam Adami Party has repeated 46 sitting MLAs and 15 sitting MLAs have been replaced, 9 seats that were vacant have been given to new candidates. In the 2015 assembly election, 6 women were given tickets by AAP, this time the number has increased to 8.

BJP's is contesting on 67 seats while ally Janata Dal-United JD(U) will contest on 2 seats and Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) will contest from Seema Puri constituency. Some of the key candidates of the party includes, Sunil Yadav who will be contesting against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Ravi Negi has been fielded from Patparganj and will take on Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Kapil Mishra from Model Town, Vijender Gupta from Rohini, Ajit Kharkhari from Najafgarh and Tajinder Bagga from Hari Nagar. 

Congress declared the names of all 61 candidates who will be contesting in the upcoming assembly election. Congress is not contesting on nine constituencies including Burari, Kirari, Madipur, Vikaspuri, Uttam Nagar, Bijwasan, Palam, Mehrauli, Okhla. 

The star campaigners of all the three parties did high-octane campaigns and tried to woo the voters of Delhi. The campaign ended at 6 pm on Thursday, just 38 hours before the voting starts in Delhi assembly election. 

Prior to the election, Delhi police has recorded 402 cases under the Arms Act and 440 persons arrested in the run-up to the elections.  As many as 7,397 licensed weapons were seized and a total of 1,021 cases were registered under the Excise Act and 1,029 persons arrested. Cash, jewellery, liquor valued at nearly Rs 53 crore were seized. 

Over 1.47 crore voters are eligible to exercise their electoral right for Delhi assembly election, out of which 66,80,277 are female and 81,05,236 are male. The number of senior citizens in the voter list is numbered at 2,04,830. 

In view of the ongoing anti-citizenship law protest in several areas of Delhi especially Shaheen Bagh, the Delhi CEO's Office has put all five polling stations in the area under the 'critical' category, which will be under tight monitoring. 

The election for the 70-member Delhi Assembly is in single-phase and the counting of votes will take place on February 11 and results will be declared simultaneously.