Lok Sabha Election 2019: Counting of votes on Thursday to decide fate of BJP, Congress, AAP candidates in Delhi

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The fate of 164 candidates who contested from the seven Lok Sabha constituencies of Delhi will be out on Thursday, May 23, when the counting of votes take place. It is a triangular contest in all the seven Lok Sabha seats between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Delhi, which voted in the sixth phase on may 12, recorded a voter turnout of 60.21%, down from 65.1% in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Key candidates:

The key candidates in Delhi are - Gautam Gambhir, Manoj Tiwari, Sheila Dikshit, Ajay Maken, Atishi Marlena and Raghav Chadha. The 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medallist and famous boxer Vijendra Singh made his maiden foray into politics, fighting the Lok Sabha election from South Delhi as Congress candidate.

In North East Delhi seat, BJP's Manoj Tiwari, Congress' Sheila Dixshit and AAP's Dilip Pandey are slugging it out. AAP's Atishi Marlena is contesting from East Delhi against BJP's Gautam Gambhir and Arvinder Singh Lovely of the Congress. Congress' Jai Prakash Agarwal is pitted against BJP's Dr Harsh Vardhan and AAP candidate Pankaj Kumar Gupta in Chandni Chowk. Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken is contesting from New Delhi against BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi and Brijesh Goyal of AAP.

BJP's Hans Raj Hans is contesting from North West Delhi. He is facing Gugan Singh of AAP and Congress’ Rajesh Lilothia. Congress' Vijender Singh is against BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri and AAP's Raghav Chadha from South Delhi. West Delhi is witnessing a tough contest between Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma of the BJP, AAP’s Balbir Singh Jakhar and Congress candidate Mahabal Mishra.

Exit poll predictions:

On Sunday, exit polls predicted a clear win for the BJP in all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital, thus triggering the AAP and the Congress questioning the veracity of such an exercise before counting of votes. While most exit polls predicted a sweep for the BJP, some projected that Congress may gain in Delhi by winning one seat.

According to India TV-CNX Exit poll, the BJP is likely to repeat the 2014 victory when it had won all seven seats. It could be a big setback for the AAP if the projections of exit polls and the actual results are same. The India Today-Axis My India exit poll has projected six to seven seats for BJP while 0-1 for Congress. News 24-Chanakya has predicted all the seven seats for BJP. Exit polls by News 18-Ipsos has projected six to seven seats for the BJP, and the Congress may gain by winning one seat.

ABP-Axis projected five out of seven seats for BJP and one each for Congress and AAP. Republic-Jan Ki Baat and Aajtak-Axis says the BJP would win a minimum of six seats, while the saffron party is expected to bag at least five out of seven seats as per an exit poll by ABP-CSDS and NewsX-Neta.

In a bid to keep BJP away from Delhi, AAP had approached Congress to forge an alliance in Delhi. However, the talks between the two parties could not materialise, resulting in a three-cornered fight here.