The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday appeared to be on its way to recapturing power in the national capital with the party leading in 66 constituencies out of 70 constituencies as against 3 of BJP and 1 seat by the Indian Lok Dal.
AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal was leading in the prestigious New Delhi constituency while BJP’s Chief Ministerial nominee Kiran Bedi was leading in the Krishna Nagar seat, considered a traditional stronghold of the party. Congress’ Ajay Maken was trailing in the Sadar Bazar seat.
As trends showed AAP’s possible victory, Ms. Bedi said she would take responsibility if the BJP was defeated in the polls.
“We [me and Kejriwal] both are competing. We both are playing a match. When we play, only one person has to win. If the party wins, it will be a collective victory and if the party loses, I will take the responsibility,” Ms. Bedi told reporters at her residence.
Ms. Bedi was trailing after the first round of counting.
AAP candidate and former Minister Rakhi Birla was leading in the Mangolpuri constituency in North West Delhi against her Congress rival Raj Kumar Chouhan. Another former AAP Minister Somnath Bharti was ahead in the Malviya Nagar constituency in South Delhi over his Congress opponent Yoganand Shastri.
AAP leader and former Minister Manish Sisodia was leading in the Patparganj seat in East Delhi against ex-AAP MLA and BJP candidate Vinod Kumar Binny. BJP’s Jagdish Mukhi was ahead in Janakpuri.
Former AAP Minister Sourav Bhardwaj was leading from Greater Kailash where Congress’ had fielded President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee.
AAP’s Sharad Chauhan was leading in Narela. AAP was also leading in Mehrauli, Kasturba Nagar and Jangpur.
With early leads giving the party a considerable lead, hundreds of AAP supporters broke into celebrations and raised slogans of '5 saal Kejriwal’.
Every lead projected on the massive LCD screen set up at AAP’s East Patel Nagar office was being cheered by supporters.
Party chief Arvind Kejriwal reached the office early in the morning and is expected to address supporters after the final results are declared.
Senior party leaders Sisodia, Kumar Vishwas, Yogendra Yadav and Sanjay Singh are also present at the three-storey office and monitoring the results from there.
This article has been updated to reflect the latest trend in counting of votes
