Campaign done, over to Delhi in high-stakes poll

The high-octane campaign for the Delhi assembly elections wound up on Monday, drawing the curtains on weeks-long acerbic tussles between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, whose leaders made a final pitch to the city's 15.5 million voters two days before the Capital's electoral fate is locked.

- HT Correspondents

Top political leaders made a flurry of public appearances and blitzed Delhi's voters with promises of welfare schemes, cash hand-outs and improved civic amenities on a chilly February day that featured rallies by former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of the AAP, Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh of the BJP, and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not address a rally on Monday, but hit out at the AAP during an interaction with a clutch of school students in Delhi.

The Capital will choose between 699 candidates for Delhi's 70 assembly seats on February 5. The results will be declared on February 8. Analysts are largely expecting the elections to be a bipolar contest between the AAP and the BJP. The AAP has governed Delhi on its own since 2015 and pinned its campaign on its trademark brand of welfarist politics, underpinned by robust educational and health care infrastructure. It has promised a ₹2,100 cash hand-out for poor women, free treatment for the elderly in all hospitals and an ₹18,000 monthly allowance for Hindu and Sikh priests, among 16 "guarantees" if voted to power for a third term, even as it alleged that the BJP will end all current subsidy schemes the AAP has implemented.

The BJP, on the other hand, has fielded its top leaders in a blitzkrieg of rallies to cash in on a decade's worth of anti-incumbency, as it seeks to corner the ruling party on allegations of corruption, ineffectual policies and crumbling civic infrastructure.

The party, which last ruled Delhi in 1998, has vowed to give ₹2,500 a month to poor women, ₹10 lakh health cover to senior citizens, and a 500 subsidy on LPG cylinders, even as has it underscored that all ongoing Delhi government programmes will be retained.

It has also talked up the tax cuts announced in the 2025-26 Budget on Saturday, a move that is likely to benefit millions of working professionals in the city.