Delhi To Go To Polls In Single Phase On February 5, Counting Of Votes 3 Days Later

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced that the much-anticipated Delhi Assembly Elections will be held in a single phase on February 5.

Votes will be counted on February 8 and the election process will be completed by February 10.

It further stated that the Gazette Notification for the election will be issued on January 10. The last date to submit nominations will be January 17. These will be scrutinised on January 18. The last date for withdrawal of candidatures is January 20.

The schedule for polls to the Delhi Legislative Assembly was released at a press conference by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and other senior poll officials.

Votes will be cast across 13,033 polling stations, spread across 2,697 polling locations, with 100% webcasting.

Delhi has 70 constituencies—58 general and 12 reserved for Scheduled Castes. Over 1.55 crore electors – 83.49 lakh male voters and 71.74 lakh female – have registered in the national capital. Among them, 25.89 lakh are young voters, and 2.08 lakh are first-time voters. There are 830 centenarian voters and 1,261 transgender voters. Additionally, 1.09 lakh voters are aged 85 and above.

There will be Home Voting facility for 85+ years old and PwD voters. Volunteers, wheelchair and ramps will be made available at polling stations for ease of voting, the ECI said.

Notably, the term of the 70-member Assembly ends on February 23.

Delhi will witness a three-cornered fight between Aam Aadmi Party, BJP and Congress in the national capital with the Arvind Kejriwal-led government seeking a third consecutive term. In the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, AAP won a landslide victory, securing 62 of 70 seats, while BJP won 8.

The ECI also announced by-elections to two assembly constituencies — Milkipur in Uttar Pradesh and Erode in Tamil Nadu — on February 5.