Aam Aadmi Party looks all set to retain power in Delhi for the third term. According to latest trends, AAP is leading in 59 seats, while BJP is ahead in 11 constituencies in the 70-member Assembly elections. The contest is between AAP and the BJP with Congress nowhere in the reckoning.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is leading in New Delhi constituency, while his deputy Manish Sisodia is trailing behind the BJP candidate Ravinder Singh Negi in Patparganj constituency. Other AAP leaders – Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gahlot, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Atishi and Raghav Chadha are also leading in their constituencies.
All three sitting BJP MLAs – Vijender Gupta, Om Prakash Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan – are leading in their constituencies.
Celebrations broke out at AAP headquarters as trends showed that the party heading towards a comfortable majority. AAP office was decorated with blue and white balloons and big cut-outs of party Convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
Counting of votes is progressing smoothly amid tight security at 21 centres. The counting began at 8 this morning with postal ballots. The votes cast through electronic voting machines (EVMs) were taken up after that. Each EVM consists of a ballot unit, a control unit and a voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT). After counting of votes through control units from every assembly constituency, five VVPATs will be randomly selected and they will be counted. 62.59 per cent voter turnout was recorded this year, five per cent less than 2015 assembly polls.
The counting centres are located across 11 districts, including at CWG Sports Complex in east Delhi, NSIT Dwarka in west Delhi, Meerabai Institute of Technology and GB Pant Institute of Technology in southeast Delhi, Sir CV Raman ITI, Dheerpur in central Delhi, and Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Bawana in north Delhi.
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