D-DAY FOR DELHI: GO OUT AND VOTE

Around 15.5 million voters across Delhi will head to the polling booths starting 7am on Wednesday in the first electoral battle of 2025, the culmination of a highvoltage assembly contest for the Capital that will have deep reverberations in national politics.

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Across 70 seats- ranging from the bustling markets of Lajpat Nagar and Rajinder Nagar and the middle-class enclaves of GK-1 and Civil Lines, to the snaking alleys of Chandni Chowks and the tree-lined avenues of Jor Bagh - the Capital will decide the futures of 699 candidates in 13,766 polling stations in what is the most closely fought assembly elections in years.

The electorate will straddle impossible contrasts - urban and rural, rich and poor, and castes and communities of every shade and ethnicity-as people from the sprawling colonial-era Lutyens Delhi and potholed nightmare of Burari, pigeonholes stuffed with students in GTB Nagar and office-goer cacophony of Connaught Place, and the languid grandeur of Old Delhi and working-class hum of Okhla, come together in deciding the fate of the national capital.

Special commissioner of police (crime) Devesh Chandra Srivastava, who is the state police nodal officer for assembly elections, said the police force is geared up for polling day, with over 42,000 personnel from the Delhi Police, along with 220 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and 19,000 home guards from the Capital, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan on duty on polling day.

"After the polling process is over, we'll ensure that that the EVMS and all polling related materials are escorted back to their storage p rooms safely," he said.

The votes will be counted on February 8. The AAP won 62 of 70 seats in the 2020 polls, with the BJP bagging the remaining eight.

Despite the modest size of the electorate, Delhi has always commanded outsized heft on the national political stage due to the prestige associated with ruling the Capital and the fact that its population reflects the diversity of broader national demographics.