Delhi Assembly Polls on Feb 8, Counting on Feb 11

New Delhi: Over 1.46 crore voters can exercise their franchise in the February 8 Assembly election in Delhi, according to the final electoral roll published on Monday.

The elections will see three key players in the fray – the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party. In the last Assembly polls, the AAP swept with 66 seats, while the BJP managed to win 3, while the Congress got a duck.

Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ranbir Singh said there are total 1,46,92,136 voters -- 80,55,686 males, 66,35,635 females and 815 belonging to third gender -- in the final voters list.

Singh said all voters will be provided QR code-enabled voters slip which will speed up voting through easy identification.

The election to the 70-member Delhi Assembly will take place on February 8 and results will be declared on February 11, the Election Commission announced on Monday.

The CEO said that there are over 11.55 lakh voters in Delhi who come under 'ASD' (absent, shifted, deceased) list and added that there were no instructions regarding registration of refugees covered under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the electoral roll this time.

Despite publication of the final electoral roll (up to January 1, 2020), any eligible person can apply for registration as voter till the last date of nomination of the Assembly polls, he said in a press conference.

"The special summary revision of voters list was conducted in September-October months last year. The draft of voters list was published on November 15, objections were invited till December 26 and now the final publication of the voters list is being done," Singh said.

As compared to the final voters list in 2019, the number of voters in Delhi has increased by 9.96 lakh in the final roll of 2020 (up to January 1), he said.

The number of voters has increased by 1,87,000 in the final roll of 2020 as compared to the draft roll published on November 15, 2019, he said.

"There were deletions of 60,848 names and addition of 2,47,950 names in the draft electoral roll, resulting in net addition of around 1,87,000 voters," the Chief Electoral Officer said.

The number of voters in various categories include overseas voter (489), service voters (11,556), voters in age group 18-19 years (2,08,883) and aged above 80 years (2,05,035), and specially challenged (55,823).

Singh said no complaints from any political party or any other quarter had been received regarding "irregularities" in deletion or addition of names in the draft voters list.

The ruling AAP, before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, had alleged deletion of names of voters belonging to various communities from the list on the behest of the BJP.

Singh said a meeting of political parties will be held and they will be provided copies of the final electoral roll. It is also available on the website of the CEO.

He said that as compared to the numbers in Lok Sabha polls, the number of voters has increased by over three lakh in the final voters list.

There are 13,750 polling booths located at 2,689 locations across Delhi.

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said the upcoming Assembly elections would be fought on the basis of the AAP government's work and said that his party would run a "positive" campaign.

At a press conference on Monday evening, Kejriwal appealed to the people of Delhi to "vote for us (AAP) only if you think we have done good work in the last five years".

"We will run a positive campaign, will not abuse anyone," he added.