High stakes battle for Delhi today

New Delhi: Voting for the high-stakes Delhi assembly election will take place on Saturday. After an eventful first term political debut, Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is seeking votes again on the basis of its governance record, while the BJP is going all out to unseat it.

Of late, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appears to have kept his head down, toned down the theatrics and focussed on administration – perhaps out of a realisation that voters will tire of the constant search for enemies and demand results.

On the other hand, BJP's campaign puts thrust on national security in a local election. Its strategy is mostly to characterise Kejriwal as a terrorist. To some extent, the strategy worked in energising its cadre while getting Hindu votes. If its strategy succeeds, it will secure more votes.

Marked by the BJP aggressively raising the anti-CAA protests in Shaheen Bagh as a poll issue, the AAP hard-selling development and the Congress conspicuous by its near absence, the bitter, often divisive and vitriolic campaign for the Delhi elections ended on Thursday.

There are 672 candidates in fray for 70 Assembly seats. Over 14.7 million total voters in various categories include males (8.105236 million), females (6.680277 million), service voters (11,608), third gender voters (869), and senior citizen (aged 80 and above) voters (204,830), according to Delhi CEO office.

Polling will be held in a single phase on February 8 and the results will be declared on February 11.

In a move to encourage people to vote in the Delhi assembly election, the Central government has declared February 8 (Saturday) as a paid holiday in Delhi.

As per the notification issued by the Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, all government offices and industrial establishments will remain closed on February 8.

The Election Commission had issued a notification restricting media to conduct or publish any exit poll during assembly elections in Delhi on February 8.

The ban will be on polling day between 8 am and 6.30 pm, the commission said. Many news agencies are expected to publish the Delhi assembly election exit poll as soon as the voting ends.