Exit polls forecast victory of ruling AAP in Delhi

Exit polls telecast after the voting ended in the Delhi state legislative assembly election today forecast a comfortable victory for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), despite a rise in tally for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 70-member House.

An estimated 57 percent of 1.48 crore voters today exercised their franchise in the election, the first polls in India since nationwide protests broke out nearly two months ago over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The voting percentage gathered momentum post-lunch after initial sluggishness, especially in morning hours, but failed to touch the figure of 67.12 percent turnout in the previous election five years ago, when Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by Arvind Kerjiwal, had won a landslide victory by winning 67 of the total 70 seats.  

The counting of votes will begin on February 11, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

The election saw a three-way contest between AAP, BJP and Congress.

President Ram Nath Kovind, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, ex-vice president Hamid Ansari, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her children Rahul and Priyanka, BJP National Secretary Ram Lal and AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal were among those who queued up outside the polling station in the first hour of voting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah earlier led a very aggressive BJP campaign and covered 60 assembly seats, appealing to voters to "free" the national capital from lies and vote-bank politics.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal said he was hopeful that AAP would form government for the third time in Delhi. APP won in Delhi in 2013 for the first time and then again in 2015.

Tight security arrangements were in place across the Indian capital with the stress on communally-sensitive areas like south-east Delhi's Shaheen Bagh where a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act has been going on for nearly two months.

AAP went into this year's electio putting up candidates in all the 70 seats with the tough task of matching its 2015 tally with its main electoral plank being fixing Delhi's government hospitals and schools and promising a slew of new welfare measures.

Determined to unseat AAP, BJP, which contested in 66 seats, hoped to build on its performance in the 2019 parliamentary election when it won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. The saffron party had spearheaded a high-pitch campaign around nationalism and Hindutva.