Kejriwal, Atishi trail; Sisodia leads in Delhi polls

Counting of votes for the Delhi Assembly elections began this morning, with early trends showing a close contest between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is trailing by 238 votes in the New Delhi constituency against BJP’s Parvesh Verma. Atishi, contesting from Kalkaji, is behind BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri by 2,800 votes. Former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who was arrested in a liquor policy case and is out on bail, is leading from Jangpura by 2,686 votes.

Several other AAP candidates are facing setbacks. Satyendar Jain, contesting from Shakur Basti, is trailing. Amanatullah Khan, a two-time MLA from Okhla, is also behind his BJP rival. Somnath Bharti is trailing in Malviya Nagar. Avadh Ojha, who joined AAP before the elections, is behind in Patparganj, a seat previously held by Sisodia.

AAP candidates leading include Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj in Greater Kailash, Gopal Rai in Babarpur, and Durgesh Pathak in Rajinder Nagar. The party focused its campaign on governance, highlighting education and healthcare, while the BJP campaigned aggressively on corruption allegations against AAP and governance issues.

Atishi said this morning that AAP would return to power and called the election a “battle between good and evil.” Saurabh Bharadwaj predicted that the party would win at least 40-45 seats despite the tough competition. The final outcome will decide whether AAP retains control of Delhi or if BJP makes major electoral gains. Voting for the 70-member Delhi Assembly took place on February 5. Official results are expected later today as counting continues.