Delhi Assembly elections on February 5 in single phase, results on Feb 8

 New Delhi: The polls to the Delhi Legislative Assembly will be held on February 5, the Election Commission said on Tuesday. The results will be announced on February 8 and the notification for the polls will be posted on January 10. 

The last date to file nominations is January 17 and the scrutiny of nominations will be done by January 18. Candidates will be able to withdraw their nominations till January 20.

"It is a single-phase election. We have deliberately kept polling on a Wednesday so more people come out to vote like we did in Maharashtra," Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said at a press conference.

Bypolls to two assembly constituencies -- Milkipur in Uttar Pradesh and Erode in Tamil Nadu -- will also be held according to the same schedule. 

Delhi has nearly 1.55 cr voters, including 71.74 lakh women and over 2 lakh first-time voters. Over 13,000 polling stations will be in place for the elections.

The Commission convened a press conference at 2 pm on Tuesday to announce the election schedule. Ahead of announcing the dates, Kumar said that the allegations surrounding Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) fraud and the electoral roll were unfounded.

The term of the 70-member Assembly ends on February 23, and elections have to be held before that to constitute a new House. Delhi has traditionally seen assembly polls in a single phase.

While the AAP won 62 seats in the Delhi Assembly in 2020, the BJP secured seven seats. Congress lost in all the seats. 

India will soon create a new record of one billion-plus voters, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on Tuesday.

99 crore voters in India
Addressing a press conference here, Kumar said 2024 was the year of elections globally when two-third of the world's population in democracies voted in different polls.

"We also had elections in eight states and UTs. There was a good atmosphere, new records were set in the Lok Sabha elections in terms of voting percentage, people's participation, women's participation...," the CEC said.

"Electoral rolls were released yesterday. We are crossing 99 crore voters... We are going to be a nation of one billion voters very soon, which will be another record in voting," Kumar said.

"After the declaration of SSR (special summary revision) by Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Punjab, which will be declaring SSR results today, we will be crossing 99 crore voters for the first time," the CEC said, adding, "Number of women voters is also going to be around 48 crore."