Delhi Election 2020 Voting: Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP vs BJP As Delhi Votes In Assembly Polls

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP is going into the election with the tough task of matching its 2015 tally, when it won 67 of 70 seats in an unprecedented sweep. Mr Kejriwal has fronted his campaign with his work on fixing the city’s hospitals and schools and promising a host of new welfare measures. After casting his vote this morning, Mr Kejriwal made a special appeal to women to cast their votes.

Determined to unseat Mr Kejriwal is the BJP, which hopes to build on its performance in the 2019 parliamentary polls when it won all seven Lok Sabha seats. The party, which has not yet named a contender for the Chief Minister’s job, has called Mr Kejriwal a “terrorist” who makes false promises and sides with “anti-national” elements. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said “vibrations” and “sixth sense” told him his party would come to power in the capital.

The Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 years before being decimated by the AAP, has led a relatively lacklustre campaign. The party’s top leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have barely campaigned for its candidates.

The bitterly-fought high-octane campaign, involving nearly 700 candidates, ended at 6 pm on Thursday. The poll will be the BJP’s first electoral test since deadly protests erupted nearly two months ago over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which is accused of violating India’s secular constitution and discriminating against Muslims.

Tight security arrangements have been made across the national capital with the police and paramilitary personnel covering the election. Nearly 2,700 polling stations with over 13,000 voting booths have been set up.

The Election Commission has made special arrangements in Shaheen Bagh, near Jamia Millia Islamia university, the epicentre of anti-CAA protests in Delhi. All five polling stations in the area under have been put in the “critical” category.

Tension in the area spiked in recent days after three incidents of gunfire near the protest site in four days. The shootings took place just days after provocative slogans by Union Minister and BJP leaders, including one by minister Anurag Thakur egging on supporters to “shoot traitors”.

Shaheen Bagh and anti-CAA protests have been used by top leaders of the BJP including PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to ask for votes. Issues such as Delhi’s air pollution crisis have not figured prominently in the election.

Assuring reliability of all Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) being used, the Election Commission said it has focused heavily on technological solutions to ensure a smooth vote. “The 2020 Delhi polls will be tech-driven with greater use of technology elements like mobile apps, QR codes, social media interface,” Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh told news agency PTI.

In the 2015 assembly polls, the AAP had won 54.3 per cent of the vote, while the BJP got 32 per cent and the Congress managed just 9.6 per cent. While the AAP won 67 seats in 2015, since then the party has conceded one seat to the BJP in a bypoll and six of its lawmakers have been disqualified over joining other parties.