Delhi votes today

Delhi goes to the polls on Saturday. The Assembly elections in Delhi are being held in 70 seats, results for which will be announced on Tuesday, February 11. Polling starts at 8 am and ends at 6 pm.

The Aam Admi Party (AAP) – which runs the Delhi government – will try to retain power, while for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), this is a prestige issue as the party won with a thumping majority in the Lok Sabha polls 2019.
The run-up to Delhi Election 2020 has seen highly charged political drama with the leaders of major contesting parties involved in accusations and counter-accusations against each other.

There have been incidents of violence on students from several renowned academic institutions ahead of the elections and heated exchange between political leaders over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR). There have been three incidents of opening fire in areas of anti-CAA protest meets – Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Millia Islamia University. Several BJP leaders have made unsavoury comments on the protesters at Shaheen Bagh.

Delhi Police claimed that the man who opened fire at Shaheen Bagh had confessed to be associated with AAP. The police officer who made the information public was removed from election duties by Election Commission (EC). AAP has later claimed the entire thing to be BJP’s conspiracy to malign its image. AAP chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was called a terrorist by the BJP while Uttar Pradesh chief minister, BJP’s Yogi Adityanath, accused him with supplying biriyani to Shaheen Bagh protesters. The EC also showcaused Adityanath for making such a remark ahead of the polls.

The three major stakeholders in this election are the ruling Aam Admi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.

BJP is expected to face a tough fight in this election against AAP. BJP has been out of power in Delhi for over two decades since it lost out to Congress in 1993. Congress, meanwhile, has been fairly out of the picture in this election with its diminishing presence in the national capital and the fight has thus turned out to be between AAP and BJP. All the eyes are thus set on this election as Delhi, and the picture will be clear on Tuesday, when results are scheduled to be announced.

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