Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has maintained a lead of over 4,000 votes as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) looks set to retain Delhi following a high-decibel campaign that was centered between the ruling party's development plank and BJP's nationalism pitch.
As counting of votes is underway, several heavyweights from AAP, BJP and Congress are either trailing or leading in their respective constituencies.
Kejriwal's deputy Manish Sisodia and BJP's Ravinder Singh Negi are in a see-saw battle to win the Patparganj constituency seat. Sisodia has bagged 13,844 votes while BJP's Ravinder Singh Negi has got 15,271 so far, according to the official EC trends.
Kapil Mishra and Alka Lamba, the rebel AAP MLAs, who were disqualified from the Kejriwal-led party on grounds of defection, and joined BJP and Congress respectively, were trailing from Model Town and Chandni Chowk constituencies.
Lamba, who won from Chandni Chowk seat on an AAP ticket in the 2015 elections, was way behind AAP's Parlad Singh Sawhney and Suman Kumar Gupta of BJP. Sawhney is leading with 12,621 votes so far.
Mishra, a former Cabinet minister in the Kejriwal government, was behind AAP's Akhilesh Pati Tripathi by over 4,500 votes in Model Town seat.
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Mishra had won from Karawal Nagar constituency in the 2015 polls.
The BJP leader gained headlines for his controversial tweet in which he had termed the Delhi Assembly polls "as a contest between India and Pakistan". Subsequently, the Election Commission temporarily banned him from campaigning in the city for violating the Model Code of Conduct.
In Okhla constituency, under which Shaheen Bagh falls, the place where anti-CAA protests are underway, BJP's Braham Singh is ahead with a slim margin over sitting AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan.
Atishi, who unsuccessfully contested in the last year's Lok Sabha elections from East Delhi, was maintaining a slender margin over BJP's Dharambir Singh in Kalkaji seat.
On the other hand, BJP's Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga is behind Raj Kumari Dhillon of AAP by a thin margin in Hari Nagar seat.
Sitting BJP MLA Vijender Gupta is also trailing behind Rajesh Nama Bansiwala of AAP in Rohini constituency.
Congress' Arvinder Singh Lovely, who was the chief of Delhi Congress unit and a Cabinet minister in the Sheila Dikshit-led government, is way behind AAP's Naveen Chaudhary by nearly 8,000 votes from Gandhi Nagar seat.
Delhi Assembly speaker and AAP leader Ram Niwas Goel is slightly behind BJP's Sanjay Goyal from Shahdara constituency.
In Ballimaran seat, Cabinet minister and AAP leader Imran Hussain is ahead with over 5,500 votes, while Congress' Haroon Yusuf, another Cabinet minister in the Dikshit-led regime, is behind Lata of BJP.
AAP leader Somnath Bharti is ahead in Malviya Nagar constituency by over 3,000 votes, with BJP's Shailendra Singh and Neetu Varma Soin of Congress at second and third position, respectively.
The counting of votes for 70 seats of the Delhi Assembly began at 8 am today amid tight security.
Delhi went to polls in a single-phase on February 8. AAP, BJP, Congress are the main political parties in the fray.
As per the Election Commission website, AAP is maintaining a strong lead of 57, while the BJP is far behind at 13.
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