Delhi to vote in Lok Sabha polls on May 12

Voting for the seven parliamentary constituencies of Delhi will take place on May 12, the Election Commission announced, here on Sunday.

The votes will be counted with all the 543 Lok Sabha seats on May 23.

With the announcement of the poll dates, the stage is set for a triangular contest in all the seven seats, all of which were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014 with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) finishing second.

The AAP and the Congress will contest the elections separately after the latter rebuffed AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal's overtures to put up a united front against the BJP.

After the announcement of polls dates, Kejriwal called the BJP-led NDA government "most dictatorial and anti-federal" in the history of India and urged people to throw it out of power.

"Ultimately back to we the people -- the real power of our democracy. Time to throw out the most dictatorial and anti-federal government in the history of India. Time to seek answers on demonetisation, jobs, destruction of trade and brotherhood among different communities," he tweeted.

At the height of the Modi wave in 2014, the BJP got 46 per cent of votes in Delhi while the AAP, which was not in power then, received nearly 33 per cent. The Congress, despite having ruled Delhi for 15 long years, polled around 15 per cent and could not retain any seat.

In the later Assembly elections, the AAP won 67 of the 70 seats and the BJP picked up the remaining three. The Congress was wiped out.

--IANS

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