The Bharatiya Janata Party is making all-out attempts to come back to power in Delhi after over 26 years by focussing on its slogan Parivartan (change) and a targeted campaign against the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party over corruption allegations.
The Bharatiya Janata Party was in power in Delhi the last time between December 2, 1993 and December 3, 1998, a period during which the national capital saw three chief ministers -- Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma and Sushma Swaraj.
Polling for all 70 assembly seats in Delhi will be held on February 5 and the votes will be counted on February 8, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced on Tuesday.
The Delhi assembly polls are poised to witness a thrilling triangular contest among the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, a resurgent BJP and the Congress, which seeks to reclaim its lost footing in the national capital.
AAP has already announced all its candidates, with party convener Kejriwal contesting from the New Delhi seat, which he has held since 2013, and Chief Minister Atishi seeking re-election from the Kalkaji seat.
The Congress has so far announced 48 candidates, while the BJP has declared only 29 candidates.
The New Delhi constituency is set for an interesting electoral battle featuring Kejriwal and the sons of two former Delhi chief ministers.
BJP candidate on the seat Parvesh Verma is the son of former chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, while Congress' Sandeep Dikshit is the son of three-time former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit.
The BJP leaders believe the party has "best chances" ever of staging a comeback after being out of power since 1998, banking on factors like dent in former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's image under a barrage of corruption charges like "Sheesh Mahal" and "liquor scam", and anti-incumbency against AAP.
Seeking to retain power, AAP considers the elections "tough" this time.
However, party leaders said the "credibility" of Kejriwal to deliver on his promises coupled with poll announcements like monthly honorarium of Rs 2,100 for eligible women in Delhi will ensure the party's victory.
The AAP supremo earlier on the day launched the party's poll campaign song "Phir layenge Kejriwal...", asserting that the people of Delhi will express their faith in the politics of work pursued by his party instead of the "abusive politics" of the BJP.
The BJP has been busy with sustained attacks on Kejriwal, accusing him of corruption, and raising "failures" of AAP government in Delhi for the past 10 years in providing clean drinking water, good roads, buses, clean air to breath, proper health and educational facilities.
The two parties have also been indulging in a blame game over deletion and addition of voters' names across the constituencies. The AAP leaders have alleged the BJP of filing bulk applications for deletion of the votes of thousands of AAP supporters in various constituencies including New Delhi which is represented by Kejriwal.
The BJP on the other hand has accused AAP of helping illegal Rohingya and Bangladeshi immigrants in Delhi with documents and using them as vote bank.
Amid an intense attack and counter attack involving AAP and BJP, the Congress is trying to expand its electoral space in Delhi. The party which ruled Delhi from 1998 to 2013, has been in political wilderness in the last over one decade.
With a renewed vigour, the Congress has fielded its "best candidates" so far on the 48 seats in Delhi, including city unit president Devender Yadav from Samay Badli, Sandeep Dikshit from New Delhi, Mahila Congress national president Alka Lamba from Kalkaji, Ragini Nayak from Wazirpur and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar.
The party has also tried to match AAP's announcement spree, by coming up with its own "Pyaari Didi" scheme promising Rs 2,500 per month for women in Delhi if elected to power.
The 29 candidates announced by the BJP include experienced leaders.
The party has fielded several prominent "outsiders" who recently joined the party, namely former Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, former AAP minister Raj Kumar Chauhan from Mangolpuri, former transport minister in AAP government Kailash Gahlot from Bijwasan and former AAP minister Raaj Kumar Anand from Patel Nagar.
The BJP's former South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri, contesting from Kalkaji seat against the Delhi chief minister, has already courted controversy over his remarks against Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Atishi.
AAP, formed in 2012, emerged on the political map of Delhi with a significant electoral performance in the 2013 assembly polls winning 28 seats of the total 70 and a vote share of 29.5 per cent.
The BJP won 32 seats and Congress 8 seats, with vote percentage of 32.3 and 24.6 respectively.
The era of AAP's political dominance began with a massive mandate won by it with a whopping 54.3 percent vote share. The party in a landslide victory won 67 of the 70 assembly seats.
The BJP scraped through 3 seats while the Congress drew a blank, having a vote percentage of 32.2 and 9.7, respectively.
A more or less similar performance was repeated in the 2020 polls, with the BJP managing to improve its seat tally to 8 and a vote share of 39 percent.
AAP won 62 seats with 53.6 percent vote share, while the Congress again failed to win any seat and its vote percentage halved to 4.3 percent.
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