Counting of votes to start at 8 am, 673 candidates await their fate; AAP senses victory, BJP jittery

New Delhi: All across the 70 constituencies of Delhi candidates and their supporters including the voters are eagerly awaiting the results of Assembly elections. While there are 673 candidates in the fray including 63 women, the main contest is between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party with the Congress, which lorded over the national capital for 15 years from 1998 to 2013, staring at a total wipeout after its decimation in the last election.

Counting of will votes will begin with postal ballots following which the electronic voting machines will be opened. There are 14 centres in Delhi where counting is taking place. They are New ITI Building Nand Nagri, Old ITI Building Nand Nagri, Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology, Dwarka Sector 3, Integrated Institute of Technology Dwarka, Sector-9, Veer Sawarkar Training Centre, Pusa, NP Girls Middle School, Gole Market, NP Girls Senior Secondary School, Gole Market, Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya Raj Niwas Marg, Shaheed Ameer Chand Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Raj Niwas Marg, Jija Bai Industrial Training Institute for Women, August Kranti Marg, Badminton Hall, CWG Sports Complex and Delhi Technological University Campus, Shahbad Daulat Pur.

More than 44,000 postal votes have been cast while over 89 lakh people did so by pressing the EVM button creating a record for Delhi in an Assembly election. Chief Electoral Officer Delhi Chandra Bhushan Kumar said that almost 67.14% of the electorate exercised their franchise.

While major exit polls have predicted a big win for the AAP with BJP finishing second and Congress unlikely to cross the half-a-dozen mark. AAP chief ministerial candidate Arvind Kejriwal, his BJP counterpart Kiran Bedi and Ajay Maken of the Congress are some of the big names whose fate will be known today.

AAP is banking on the performance of its 49-day government, promises of reduction in electricity and water bills, crackdown on corruption, reduction in Value Added Tax, ensuring civic amenities in slums, resettlement colonies and unauthorised colonies and better law and order to ensure women's safety to sail through. But AAP's most potent electoral plank has been giving another chance to Kejriwal, who has emerged as an extremely street smart fighter, ready to take on the high and mighty with full force and has shown that he is ready to accept mistakes and apologise, a rarity among politicians.

On the other hand BJP harped on the track record of the Central government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image, Kiran Bedi's record as a tough police officer and anti-corruption activist and its well-oiled election machinery which has been on a roll for the last two years.