New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held a solid position, staying above the halfway mark in Delhi after nearly four hours into the counting. While, the BJP is leading in 44 seats of the 70 seat Delhi Assembly, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) continued to stay in close contention but lading in only 26 seats. Several AAP heavyweight leaders, including party chief Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister Atishi Marlena, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Satyendra Jain, Saurabh Bhardwaj are trailing.
Today’s outcome set to decide whether the AAP will secure a fourth consecutive term or if the BJP will stage a comeback in Delhi after 26 years. The Congress, which has faced two consecutive electoral defeats before, is also leading towards another defeat in the state.
Vote counting commenced at 8am across 19 counting stations spanning 11 districts. As per early reports, security has been tightened across all counting centres. Shahdara, Central Delhi, East, South, and Southwest districts will each have one counting center, while North, West, Northeast, and Southeast districts will have two each. The New Delhi and Northwest districts will have three counting stations apiece. Exit polls have largely favored the BJP over AAP, which has been in power since 2015.