2 weeks Ago
Delhi Election 2025: The stage is all set for people to vote in Delhi Assembly elections across 70 seats of the national capital today, February 5. The voting will begin at 7 am and continue until 6 pm. The contest in the national capital is three-cornered with the three major parties – the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress – in the fray.
The high-octane campaign ended on Monday with big guns from parties holding roadshows, public meetings, padayatras and bike rallies in a final push to sway voters. AAP seeks hat-trick Arvind Kejriwal's AAP is fighting to retain power for the third consecutive time, while the BJP has not been in power for 27 years in the national capital . The Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 years, is contesting to reclaim its lost control over Delhi assembly.
As many as 1,55,37,634 or 15 million residents of Delhi are eligible to vote in the Delhi Election, with 699 candidates in the fray to become a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). Voting will take place across 13,766 polling stations in what is being seen as the most closely fought assembly elections in years. The AAP comfortably won the last two elections – 2015 and 2020.
But the last two years have been the toughest for the AAP. Almost the entire top leadership of party found itself at the receiving end of investigations by central investigation agencies over corruption allegations, mostly related to the alleged Delhi Liquor scam . Leaders including Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Satynedar Jain, are out on bail in corruption-related cases.
Three-cornered contest The AAP is seeking a hat-trick in the national capital by offering a host of schemes ranging from cash hand-outs to poor women to free treatment for all senior citizens, apart from its already existing flagship schemes . The BJP hopes to ride on anti-incumbency and middle-class anger and get a chief minister for the first time since 1998. The party's campaign focussed on corruption charges against AAP government.
The Congress party, once a powerhouse in Delhi, centred its campaign around the record of fifteen-year government under the then chief minister Sheila Dikshit from 1998 to 2013 On polling day, as many as 42,000 personnel from the Delhi Police, 220 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), and 19,000 home guards from the Capital, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan are on duty..
