The election in Delhi is a largely a direct fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. However, as a debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) managed to make its presence felt among voters at almost every assembly segment. It is still to be known if the AAP will be able to secure a significant presence in the fifth Delhi assembly as its vote bank is scattered across the city but not consolidated in any particular region to ensure victory.
After BJP and Congress, two more parties AAP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had maximum presence on polling stations across the city. However, these two smaller parties could not get enough representatives and several polling stations had polling agents of only two parties - BJP and Congress. Even a polling booth in New Delhi was left unattended by AAP’s polling agent. ‘No agent of AAP came here,’ said the presiding officer of Saint Columbas School at Ashok Place.
BSP, which had secured two seats — Badarpur and Gokulpur in 2008 and was second at six seats claims that it will increase its tally to half a dozen seats in this election. At Patpargunj, New Delhi, and RK Puram assembly seats the contest is triangular while it is quadrangular at Babarpur, Seemapuri and Seelampur seats due to a strong presence of AAP. The party has emerged as a deciding factor on over one and half dozen seats by slicing away the traditional vote banks of Congress, BJP and BSP. It is however, not strong enough to win the seats.
Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) has no presence on any of the seats as a party. It is banking on the individual poll performance of Matia Mahal MLA Shoib Iqbal and his family. His nephew Khurram Iqbal is contesting from Chandni Chowk and Shoib Danish is contesting from Okhla on JD(U) tickets. These two are not in position to win their seats.
There are around 300 parties in poll fray in the assembly elections including Samajwadi Party, NCP and Muslim League but none of them have any significance for the voters. The fate of 810 candidates for 70 assembly seats was sealed in electronic voting machines on Wednesday and will be revealed on Sunday.
After BJP and Congress, two more parties AAP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had maximum presence on polling stations across the city. However, these two smaller parties could not get enough representatives and several polling stations had polling agents of only two parties - BJP and Congress. Even a polling booth in New Delhi was left unattended by AAP’s polling agent. ‘No agent of AAP came here,’ said the presiding officer of Saint Columbas School at Ashok Place.
BSP, which had secured two seats — Badarpur and Gokulpur in 2008 and was second at six seats claims that it will increase its tally to half a dozen seats in this election. At Patpargunj, New Delhi, and RK Puram assembly seats the contest is triangular while it is quadrangular at Babarpur, Seemapuri and Seelampur seats due to a strong presence of AAP. The party has emerged as a deciding factor on over one and half dozen seats by slicing away the traditional vote banks of Congress, BJP and BSP. It is however, not strong enough to win the seats.
Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) has no presence on any of the seats as a party. It is banking on the individual poll performance of Matia Mahal MLA Shoib Iqbal and his family. His nephew Khurram Iqbal is contesting from Chandni Chowk and Shoib Danish is contesting from Okhla on JD(U) tickets. These two are not in position to win their seats.
There are around 300 parties in poll fray in the assembly elections including Samajwadi Party, NCP and Muslim League but none of them have any significance for the voters. The fate of 810 candidates for 70 assembly seats was sealed in electronic voting machines on Wednesday and will be revealed on Sunday.