The voting for the Delhi assembly elections to select a 70-member House was concluded and a 57.70% turnout was registered by 5 pm. The final voter turnout will be declared very soon by the Election Commission of India (ECI). In the meantime, exit polls show a clear change, indicating that the BJP may have an upper hand over the current ruling party AAP which may pave the way for the party’s return to power in the national capital after 27 years. Polling was carried out in one round in 13,766 polling stations where AAP, BJP and Congress vied for the seats. More than 1.56 crores of people were eligible to vote, including 83.76 lakh men, 72.36 lakh women and 1,267 third-gender voters. To guarantee the proper implementation of the process, over 30,000 police personnel and 220 paramilitary companies were deployed across the city. The high risk elections were accompanied by major political fights. Arvind Kejriwal, the national convenor of AAP is in a tight race with Parvesh Verma of the BJP and Sandeep Dikshit of the Congress. Kalkaji constituency is also one of the key contests between Delhi CM Atishi, Alka Lamba of Congress and Ramesh Bidhuri of BJP. Also, the ECI introduced an application of Queue Management System (QMS) to help voters check the crowd density in real time. Other special arrangements were made for senior citizens and people with disabilities. The vote counting will start from February 8 and the results will shape the future of Delhi’s leadership.
