Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal cast his vote in the Delhi Assembly polls on Wednesday. Kejriwal, along with his wife Sunita Kejriwal and his parents, cast their vote at Lady Irwin Senior Secondary School.
“My parents were very excited to cast their votes, and they have put in all their efforts to do that. I appeal to the people of Delhi to come out and cast their votes for the development of Delhi,” Kejriwal told the media.
Polling is underway in Delhi on all 70 assembly seats. The New Bengal Gazette spoke to a score of voters who stepped out of their homes to exercise their voting rights.
Aditya Sharma, who voted in Bawana constituency, said that the basis on which he decided his vote was the healthcare system in his locality. “I was and am very much concerned about the healthcare situation, especially the public hospitals. Mohalla clinics were a great initiative to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare but nowadays it just has become a generic medical store with a doctor in it,” he said.
Sharma further said, “With the same medicines prescribed again and again, patients are usually referred to the nearby big hospitals which are already overburdened by patients. Mohalla clinics came into force to assist the hospitals but now we’re back to square one.”
Bawana, a seat located in the North West Delhi district, elected Aam Aadmi Party candidate Jai Bhagwan in the last assembly poll. Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Ravinder Kumar had stood second.
Himanshi Aggarwal, a voter from Rohini, said that she had certain issues in mind when she approached the billing booth this morning. “Issues included women safety, cleanliness of public spaces, better facilities in public schools and hospitals and development of roads which are in the worst condition,” she said.
Rohini seat is witnessing a fierce rivalry between the AAP and the BJP. In the 2013 and 2015 elections, the winning margin was close to only 5000 votes between the two parties. BJP’s two-time winner Vijender Gupta is again in the fray against AAP candidate Pradeep Mittal. Gupta won the seat against AAP’s Rajesh Nama ‘Bansiwala’ in the 2020 elections by more than 12,000 votes.
Another voter from Rohini who chose to remain anonymous said that he voted purely on the basis of development in terms of ‘Bijli, paani and sadak’ (electricity, water and road).
Dhananjay Kumar, a voter in Najafgarh, said that he wants his candidate to be approachable and one who could give the people of this constituency a sense of security. “Out of the three major political parties, one has fielded a candidate from my constituency whose family has had a long history of gang war and crime,” he said, adding that state level campaigns played a huge role in his decision making. “I voted for progress and for the party which can fix the issues and provide basic amenities to the people.”
AAP’s Kailash Gahlot won the last two assembly elections from Najafgarh seat in 2015 and 2020. Gahlot is now with the BJP. AAP has fielded Tarun Yadav from this seat in the 2025 polls.
The Okhla constituency is also a high-profile seat being contested by Amanatullah Khan from the Aam Aadmi Party for the 3rd consecutive time. Congress has fielded Areeba Khan to contest against him. Khan in 2020 as well as 2015 defeated BJP Candidate Braham Singh with a margin of over 60,000 votes each time.
Maryam Hassan, a voter in Okhla, said that civic issues have topped the chart in these elections in her locality. “We face issues everyday due to lack of basic facilities. These include bad roads infrastructure, proper waste management and absence of a proper drainage system,” she said.
“One of the key issues is also of the poorly maintained power infrastructure especially during summers when voltage fluctuations, transformer failures, and extended power cuts make life hell,” she added.
Siddharth Sharma, a voter from West Delhi’s Moti Nagar area, said that he voted on the performance factor. “I assessed the work of the sitting MLA and then made up my mind if I should vote for him or not.”
BJP’s Harish Khurana has been fielded from the Moti Nagar seat, where he is up against AAP’s sitting MLA Shiv Charan Goyal in the elections. For Khurana, it’s his poll debut. His father Madan Lal was Delhi’s Chief Minister between 1993 and 1996 after the BJP swept the polls when the Legislative Assembly was reconstituted. Three decades later, Khurana is contesting from the same seat that his father represented.
Meanwhile, allegations of fake voting emerged in some parts of the national capital, including Seelampur. High drama unfolded on this seat when a BJP leader reportedly accused some women wearing burqas of attempting to vote “fraudulently”. However, police have reportedly denied any fake voting in the area.
A voter in Seelampur area who chose to remain anonymous said, “Earlier, I had decided to vote for Congress party, but then I changed my mind and went ahead to vote for AAP as the AAP candidate is more approachable as compared to his counterparts. However, roads need to be fixed in the area.”
In Seelampur, which has 1,93,699 registered voters, a three-way fight is underway between AAP’s Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad, BJP’s Anil Gaur, and Congress’ Abdul Rehman.
Rehman had won the 2020 elections on an AAP ticket before defecting to the Congress in December 2024, citing the AAP’s neglect of Muslim rights. Congress, which once had held influence in the area, has struggled to make a comeback.
Nasir Beg, a voter in Shahdara, said that he’s no more enthusiastic about voting as his life won’t change. “I know whoever is voted to power, nothing will change in my life. We have struggled and we will struggle. We have had so many issues but no one cares to pay attention to fix them. I’ve lost interest in the polling process,” he said. Beg is a Rapido driver and works from 8 am in the morning till 9 pm at night.
Shahdara is part of the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. AAP candidate Ram Niwas Goel had won the Shahdara seat in the 2020 and 2015 elections.
Results for the Delhi assembly election will be out on February 8.
