AAP or BJP? D-Day for Delhi as counting of votes for 250 MCD wards begins

Counting began at 42 centres across Delhi under tight security

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ ITDC NEWS The counting of votes for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election has begun at 42 centres across the national capital. While the BJP is hoping to retain power for the fourth consecutive time, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is confident of wresting the civic body from BJP this time and exit polls are favourable for them.

The counting began at 8 am and the State Election Commission (SEC) had made extensive preparations for the same. Over 68 election observers have been deployed at the 42 centres, who will supervise the counting carried out by Returning Officers in the presence of candidates or their representatives.

The SEC has also arranged 136 engineers from Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) at these counting centres to attend to any technical issues regarding the EVMs which may arise during the counting of votes. The live results will also be available at the Special Media Rooms on the Commission's web portal on the LED screens at these 42 counting centres.

A Media Centre has also been set up at SEC (HQ) at Nigam Bhawan, Kashmere Gate, for the media personnel.

Meanwhile, there will be multi-layered security at every counting centre and only persons authorized by the Commission will be permitted inside. Though mobile phone use has been allowed inside these centres, the same is restricted to the designated areas only as per instructions of RO/SEC, according to the commission.

The polls for 250 wards in the national capital were held on December 4. There was a turnout of over 50 per cent.

Exit polls

Though the high-stakes civic polls were largely a three-way contest, the fight was majorly between the BJP and the AAP. The Congress also carried out extensive campaigning to win back the civic body.

However, the exit polls predict the AAP will wrest power from the BJP. The Congress will get only a handful of seats, according to the exit polls.

AAP leaders also openly shared their joy after the predictions came out. AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal thanked the voters and expressed hope that the party will do better than exit poll trends.

"We are expecting better results than what the exit polls predicted. These exit polls also show that people have rejected all the allegations levelled by the BJP (against AAP) and have voted for good work," Durgesh Pathak, AAP's MCD poll in-charge, told PTI.

This is AAP's second time in the Delhi civic body polls. The first was in 2017 when it came second with 48 seats as opposed to BJP’s 181. Congress only got 30 seats last election.

However, this is the first election since the delimitation which saw the three corporations merge into the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.