New Delhi: A close contest or a one-sided match? Delhi has spoken but the verdict will be known only on February 11 when the votes will be counted and results of Assembly election 2020 will be declared. Delhi voters had to choose between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and a host of other smaller parties and independent candidates and over 61.43 per cent of the 1,47,86,382 eligible people had their franchise till about 10:17 pm, according to the Election Commission of India.
The overall voting witnessed a massive dip as compared to the 2015 Delhi Assembly election when 67.1 per cent of the electorate had cast their votes. However, the final voting percentage of the 2020 Delhi poll is yet to come.
But exit polls by different pollsters and the Zee News Maha Exit Poll predict a massive victory for the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP with the BJP a distant second and Congress not even in the reckoning. AAP is expected to retain power with 55 seats while BJP would bag 14 and Congress just 1.
It seems Delhi has decided to go with AAP's positive campaign and not taken the bigger national issues like nationalism, Pakistan etc., into account and instead voted on local issues which they face on a day to day basis.
The other concern is the fall in voting percentage which had been rising steadily for the last several Assembly elections. In the 1998 Assembly election, Delhi had recorded a voter turnout of just 48.99 per cent which was a sharp decline of more than 12 percentage points from 61.75 per cent from the 1993 election. Since 1998, the capital city had seen a rise in the overall voter turnout. In 2003, 2008, 2013, and 2015 Assembly elections recorded 53.42 per cent, 57.58 per cent, 65.63 per cent, and 67.12 per cent, voter turnout respectively.
Ballimaran, the smallest constituency of Delhi in terms of area, witnessed a moderate polling percentage of 47.35 per cent till 6 pm, while Narela, which is the largest constituency of the metropolis, witnessed a polling percentage of 61.81 per cent.
Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain earlier said the elections took place peacefully and smoothly. He informed that a total of 672 candidates were in the fray and more than 98,000 officials were deployed for the polling.
Among the exit polls, the Times Now-Ipsos predicted 47 seats for AAP and 23 for BJP. The ABP News-C Voter poll predicted that AAP will get 49-63 seats and the BJP 5-19 seats, while the Congress could win 0-4 seats.
The TV9 Bharatvarsh-Cicero exit poll predicted that AAP would win 54 seats, BJP 15 seats and Congress one seat.
The Republic TV-Jan Ki Baat exit poll gave 48-61 seats to AAP, 9-21 seats to BJP and 0-1 seat for the Congress.
India TV-IPSOS prediction gives AAP 44 seats, BJP 26, and Cong zero.
News24-Jan Ki Baat exit poll prediction extends 54 seats for AAP 54, 15 for BJP, and merely one for Congress.
India Today-Axis has predicted 59-68 seats for AAP, 02-11 for BJP, and zero seats for Congress.
NewsX-Polstrap prediction, AAP will get 50-56 seats, BJP is restricted between 10 and 14, while the Congress fails to open its account.
NewsX-NETA prediction gives 53-57 seats for AAP, 11-17 for BJP, and 0-2 seats for Congress.
The AAP had registered a landslide victory in 2015 elections getting 67 of 70 seats. The BJP had won three seats while Congress failed to open its account.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari refused to believe the exit poll predictions, and Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit also scoffed at them. However, AAP leaders were upbeat about the results.
