New Delhi: The BJP looked set to return to power in Delhi after 27 years as it either won or led in 48 seats, 12 more than the majority mark in the prestigious Union Territory’s Assembly for which counting was on Saturday.
Of the eight seats declared so far, the BJP and AAP picked up four each. But while the saffron outfit was ahead in 44 more, the ruling AAP candidates led in only 18, and could finish with 22 seats if the present trends hold
With most of the counting completed in all the seats in the 70-member Assembly, several of AAP heavyweights, including National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and current minister Saurabh Bharadwaj were trailing their BJP opponents.
After a snake and ladder game, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP bigwig Atishi was ahead by over 3500 votes in the Kalkaji constituency.
The Congress, which could not open its account in the Assembly poll five years back, seemed headed for another rout as it was not in the lead in any of the seats. .
The BJP lost power to the Congress in the 1998 Delhi Assembly polls, and had since then been in the opposition in the Union Territory, which comprises the National Capital Region. In 2013, it had finished as the single largest party bagging 31 seats, but failed to muster the numbers for government formation.
As the BJP could not cobble up a government, the then newly formed AAP was called in, and Kejriwal took over as Chief Minister with outside support from the Congress. However, he resigned after 49 days. The AAP then won a huge majority in the 2015 elections, and repeated its feat five years later to continue its rule over Delhi.
With regards to vote share, BJP has so far got 47.16 percent votes while AAP has got 43.01 vote share, and Congress has so far garnered 6.49 percent vote. UNI
