New Delhi, Feb 8: The BJP is poised to form a government in Delhi after more than 26 years, with the latest Election Commission trends showing the saffron party ahead in 45 of the 70 assembly seats and AAP in 25.
According to the Election Commission (EC) website, the BJP’s vote share was 47.01 per cent till 11.55 am while AAP’s stood at 43.16 per cent.
AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal was trailing the BJP’s Parvesh Verma by 430 votes in the high-profile New Delhi seat after eight rounds of counting.
Kejriwal’s former deputy Manish Sisodia was leading by 3,869 votes in Jangpura after the fifth round.
In Kalkaji, Chief Minister and AAP candidate Atishi was trailing the BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri by 3,231 votes, the EC data showed.
“The people will give the BJP a decisive mandate. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, Delhi will progress alongside the rest of the country. I can confidently say that AAP will be eliminated from the national capital,” Bidhuri said.
The BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht was leading by the highest margin of 40,598 votes in Mustafabad — where the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielded northeast Delhi riots-accused Tahir Hussain.
In Okhla, AAP’s Amantullah Khan was leading by 9,518 votes.
AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj was trailing by 2,039 votes in Greater Kailash while Gopal Rai, his colleague in the Delhi Cabinet, was leading by 25,105 votes in Babarpur.
The BJP’s Kapil Mishra was leading in the Karawal Nagar seat by 23,352 votes while Tilak Ram Gupta was ahead in Tri Nagar with a margin of 8,557 votes.
In Ballimaran, AAP’s Imran Hussain was leading by 19,326.
Saffron party candidates Sanjay Goel (Shahdara), Chandan Chaudhary (Sangam Vihar), Bajrang Shukla (Kirari) and Kartar Singh Tanwar (Chhatarpur) were also leading.
AAP’s Durgesh Pathak (Rajinder Nagar), Anjana Parcha (Trilokpuri) and Veer Singh Dhingan (Seemapuri) were ahead of their rivals.
With the trends showing a significant lead for the BJP, its Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva said the national capital’s next chief minister would be from the saffron party.
“The results so far are in line with our expectations but we will wait for the final outcome,” he told reporters after offering prayers at the Hanuman temple in Connaught Place.
Meanwhile, BJP supporters erupted in celebration outside its Delhi headquarters, waving party flags and dancing to the beats of ‘dhol’.
Holding up cutouts of a lotus, the BJP’s election symbol, they also smeared each other with saffron-coloured powder.–(PTI)