Counting of votes for Delhi civic polls begins
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Counting of votes for the three municipal corporations in the national capital began here on Tuesday amid tight security.
The counting for 272 wards are taking place in 33 centres across the city, a senior State Election Commission official said.
Polling for all the 272 wards spread in three corporations -- East, South and North -- were held on Sunday in which 55 per cent of the 1.15 crore voters exercised their franchise.
This was a record for the past 15 years. The elections will decide the electoral fate of 2,423 candidates, majority of them independents.
Congress and BJP are waiting with bated breaths for the results as stakes are high for both the national parties in the municipal polls, considered as a semifinal ahead of the Assembly elections next year. Both Congress and BJP had claimed their parties would sweep the polls.
Delhi Congress chief J.P. Agarwal had said he was "100 per cent confident" about his party's victory while his BJP counterpart Vijender Gupta was "certain" his camp was headed to win all the three Corporations.
There are 104 each wards in South and North Corporations and 64 in the East, of which 138 seats are reserved for women. South has the highest number of 904 candidates followed by North (885) and East (634).
The municipal polls is seen as crucial for Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Congress as well as opposition BJP with leaders believing that it could be an indicator for what is in store for them in the Assembly polls which are 18 months away.
BJP, which has 164 councillors in the undivided MCD against Congress' 67 and BSP's 17, has been harping on alleged corruption by Dikshit government while Congress has been targeting the saffron party on its "inefficient and corrupt" administration in MCD.
In the 2007 polls to the undivided Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), BJP had bagged 36.17 per cent of the around 42.35 lakh votes polled while Congress got 29.17 per cent. BSP's vote share was 9.87 per cent.
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