Voting for high-stakes Delhi civic polls underway

Voting for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election is underway.

In the high-stakes polls for greater control in the national capital, Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is looking to wrest power from the BJP which is eyeing its fourth consecutive tenure at the civic body, reports NDTV.

The Congress, which has suffered a back-to-back drubbing in the national capital since 2015 in parliamentary, assembly, and municipal corporations polls, will try to win back some ground.

Voting for the MCD election began at 8am on Sunday and will continue till 5:30pm.

Around 1.4 crore eligible voters from 250 wards will get a chance to cast their votes in the crucial local body polls. The counting of the votes will be done on December 7, according to Odishatv.in.

Delhi State Election Commission has set up 13,638 polling stations for the civic body polls.

Around 40,000 police personnel, 20,000 home guards as well as 108 companies of paramilitary and state armed police forces have been deployed to ensure smooth conduct of the election.

Over 1,300 candidates from different political parties are in the contest for the civic body polls. The AAP and BJP are fighting on all seats. The Congress has fielded candidates on 247 seats as nominations of three of its candidates were rejected over technical issues.

Moreover, all the major political parties including the BJP, Congress and AAP have fielded more women candidates than men this year in the MCD polls.

The BJP has been ruling over the municipal bodies of Delhi for the last 15 years. The saffron party in the last MCD election in 2017, got a massive two-thirds majority.