New Delhi: Early trends in the counting of votes for Delhi Assembly elections show BJP taking the lead in 38 seats, touching the majority mark. Facing a 10-year anti-incumbency, Arwind Kejriwal’s AAP was trailing in 27 seats. If trends hold, the result would be a referendum on AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, whose party faced corruption and misgovernance allegations in the run-up to the elections. The counting has begun with the postal ballots for the 70 assembly seats around 8am. Congress is at distant third, as per the early trends.
Who’s trailing and who’s leading? The big guns for the AAP including party convenor Arvind Kejriwal and incumbent Chief Minister Atishi were trailing in the initial round. But Kejriwal seems to have made a comeback at the end of the second round around 10am.
Kejriwal is currently leading with over 250 votes against BJP’s Parvesh Sahib Singh. Atishi is still trailing in Kalkaji at the end of the first round. Former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Gopal Rai in Jangpura, Greater Kailash and Babarpur seats are leading respectively.
What is at stake? It’s a make-or-break battle for the AAP. The party is seeking a fourth victory based after having dominated the national capital for two consecutive terms. But it is also grappling with the burden of corruption allegations and battling an anti-incumbency factor. The BJP is seeking to return to power in the national capital after 27 years. It had bolstered its 2025 campaign for Delhi on a strong leadership under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, trying to woo voters with Budget announcements.
