Delhi Election: AAP's Atishi thanks voters, reveals goal for Kalkaji constituency

Atishi, AAP’s winning candidate from the Kalkaji constituency expressed her gratitude to the voters of the national capital on Tuesday. Maintaining that was a mandate for the “politics of development”, she recalled the Delhi government’s contribution in enhancing the standards of school education in the last 5 years. Thereafter, she promised to make Kalkaji the “best constituency” of Delhi. In 2019, Atishi had lost the Lok Sabha election from the East Delhi constituency to BJP's Gautam Gambhir. 

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The Delhi poll campaign

Since the announcement of the Delhi Assembly polls, the national capital has witnessed a high-octane campaign mainly by BJP and AAP. Right at the outset, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal made it clear that his party would focus on issues such as clean water, education, and health. He asserted that AAP would not indulge in negative campaigning. AAP was also the first party to declare its full list of candidates re-nominating all its sitting ministers and giving a chance to young leaders such as Atishi and Raghav Chadha.   

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On the other hand, BJP refrained from naming any CM candidate. It named a newcomer Sunil Yadav to take on Kejriwal from the New Delhi constituency. Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, numerous BJP CMs, MPs and Union Ministers participated in the election campaign. In the last few days, BJP leaders sought to highlight AAP’s alleged role in instigating the Shaheen Bagh agitation.

Finally, the electorate of Delhi registered their vote on February 8. As per the Election Commission of India, the total voter turnout was 62.59 per cent - nearly 5 per cent lower than the corresponding figures in the 2015 election. The trends as of writing this article indicate that AAP has surged ahead in 63 out of the total 70 seats with a vote share of 53.51 per cent. Congress has drawn a blank while BJP is leading in 7 seats. 

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