New Delhi: Tight security arrangements have been put in place at 21 centres across 11 districts of the national capital where the counting of votes polled in the high-stakes February 8 Delhi Assembly elections will take place on Tuesday. Trends on the elections, in which 92.54 lakh people exercised their franchise, will start coming from 8 am onwards.
The voting trends and results on individual seats will be declared live on the Election Commission of India websites — eciresults.nic.in, eci.gov.in and results.eci.gov.in. Additionally, updates are also expected on EC’s Twitter account.
The curiosity among people to know the outcome of the elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly has heightened post-exit polls, that has forecast a big win for the ruling AAP, and the delay in announcement of the final voter turnout by authorities.
The election, largely seen as a battle between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP, which went aggressive during the high-octane campaign, was held on Saturday, sealing the fate of 672 candidates — 593 men and 79 women.
Exactly 25 hours after the polling ended in Delhi, the Election Commission on Sunday announced that the final voter turnout was 62.59 per cent, five per cent less than 2015, and asserted that it followed the laid-down process to compile data, after the AAP questioned the “delay”.
On AAP’s charge that the Electronic Voting Machines could be “tampered” with to maniputate the election outcome, Delhi chief electoral officer Ranbir Singh, said all the machines have been tested and they are “foolproof as well as non-tamperable”.
Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari claimed that his party would win the election with precisely 48 seats and said other parties should not make the excuse of EVM tampering for their defeat.
Exit polls have predicted an easy win for the AAP, which sought to retain power on development plank, against the BJP that ran an aggressive campaign centred around the issues of anti-CAA protests and nationalism. Most exit polls also predicted that Congress is unlikely to open its account even this time in Delhi , which it ruled from 1998-2013. Looking to capture power after 22 years, the BJP had mounted one of the most aggressive campaigns in Delhi.
