On 8th Feburary the national capital voted to elect a new government, after a campaign in which the BJP pulled no punches against the AAP which is eyeing another term in office. The congress was the third main party in the contest. The elections in the capital took place in the midst of massive protests in the city over the citizenship law. Delhi elections this year were highly tech-enabled. The elections commission had put the entire voting list online. The elector’s attendance were marked by scanned pre-printed voter slips. Voters could download their digital photo voter slip from the ‘voter helpline’ application. The election results were declared on February 11. The election commission appointed retired IAS officer Vinod Zutshi as a special general observer for the elections. Delhi is not governed by the state government but it is governed jointly by the Delhi government and the central government.
Delhi chief minister led AAP has scored a hattrick in the Delhi elections. The voter turnout in Delhi was recorded at 62.59% showing a decline of 4.88% from the previous assembly election. NOTA constituted 0.5% of the total votes pulled. Though in the days of campaign the BJP tried its best to puncture Mr Kejriwal’s claim of good governance but The AAP led by Arvind Kejriwal scored a landslide victory as it swept both BJP and congress by winning 62 seats in the 70 member assembly and claimed an absolute majority in the elections. The BJP was again restricted to a single digit (8) and congress could not win a single seat. Modi congratulated Kejriwal and Mr Arvind Kejriwal will take oath as the Delhi chief minister for the third time on February 16. The AAP party had worked tremendously hard and its exceptional achievements in the past years made him victorious. Some of its achievements are upgrading the government schools, checking on private school fees, subsided water and electricity, they improved the health facilities, free DTC bus and metro rides for women, and many more.
Manish Sisodia was elected as the deputy chief minister won after a neck-and-neck competition with BJP’s Ravinder Singh Negi in the Patparganj. AAP’s Sanjeev Jha recorded biggest victory margin of over 888,000 votes from Burari. AAP’s Atishi and Raghav Chadha who made their assembly poll debut were declared winner from Kalkaji and Rajinder Nagar constituency respectively. Meanwhile, BJP’s Vijendar Gupta registered a win in Rohini constituency and OP Sharma won the Vishvas Nagar seat. AAP’s incumbent MLA Rajesh Rishi swept Janakpuri, BJP’s bastion of 20 years. There was a high voltage campaign between the ruling AAP and BJP, while congress ended up as an inconsequential participant. AAP’s Bhupinder Singh Joon won from Bijwasan by lowest margin of 753 votes. Eight out of the nine women candidates fielded by the AAP won. Congress performance touched a very low record as the party bagged less than 5% votes of the total votes casted and 63 of its candidates lost their deposits. Also Delhi congress chief resigned from his post. As AAP has a stunning victory at Delhi assembly polls, the party also gave hints of taking its politics at the national level. But a sad part is that ADR analysis says that over 50% of the newly elected members have serious criminal cases against them. The study also finds that 45 AAP’s AND 7 BJP’s MLAs have declared assets worth more than many crores. AAP MLA Dharampal Lakra is the richest legislator with assents more than 292 crores And Rakhi Birla has declared least amount of assets at Rs76000. As the AAP returned in power with thumping majority , Arvind Kejriwal said that he looks forward to work closely with the centre and make Delhi a truly world class city.