The counting of votes for the Delhi Assembly polls that were held on February 8 will take place on Tuesday.
Counting will begin from 8 AM and early trends will emerge within couple of hours.
The Election Commission has established 21 strong rooms across the city to keep the EVMs after the polling for the 70 Assemblies in Delhi completed on Saturday. Tight security arrangements have been put in place at various centres across the national capital and adequate arrangements have been made at the centres spread across 21 location in the national capital, spanning 11 districts, officials said on Monday.
The election, largely seen as a battle between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP, which went aggressive during the high-octane campaign, was held on Saturday, sealing the fate of 672 candidates -- 593 men and 79 women.
Nearly 24 hours after the polling ended in Delhi, the Election Commission on Sunday announced that the final voter turnout was 62.59 per cent, five per cent less than 2015, and asserted that it followed the laid down process to compile data, after the AAP questioned the "delay".
While all the exit polls had predicted an easy victory for the Aam Aadmi Party, the BJP and Congress have dismissed the same. Most exit polls also predicted that Congress is unlikely to open its account even this time in Delhi, which it ruled from 1998-2013.
Looking to capture power after 22 years, the BJP had mounted one of the most aggressive campaigns in the Delhi Assembly polls, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah leading the saffron charge on its planks of Hindutva and nationalism, and its strident opposition to Shaheen Bagh protests.
Former AAP MLA and present BJP candidate from the Model town constituency, Kapil Mishra on Monday said that the "people's mandate" was with the BJP.
"We know the reality as we have worked on the ground. I must say, there is nothing to be surprised if Kejriwal gets defeated from New Delhi constituency," Mishra said while speaking to ANI.
Since the exit polls were announced, his words have been echoed by other party leaders. IT Cell chief, Amit Malviya and BJP candidate Manoj Tiwari have both predicted "a landslide mandate" for the party with over 45 seats.
"There will be a huge difference in exit polls and the final results. We will wait for exact polls. Exit polls had failed in May elections (17th Lok Sabha polls) as well," Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had told ANI last week.
The Congress too rejected the polls, with Mukesh Sharma the chief spokesperson of Delhi Congress adding that he was certain the February 11 results would "startle everyone".
Congress leader PC Chacko however remained non-committal to the idea of a Congress-AAP alliance.
"It depends on the results. Once results are out then only we can discuss it; I think the surveys are not correct. Congress is likely to do better than what surveys predict," he had earlier told ANI.
Anticipating a victory, AAP chief, Arvind Kejriwal on Monday asked AAP volunteers not to burst firecrackers during victory celebrations to prevent air pollution. Party functionaries however said that preparations are underway to celebrate the victory in the polls. Other preparations to celebrate the victory, included ordering sweets and namkeens.
The counting centres are located at CWG Sports Complex in East Delhi, NSIT Dwarka in West Delhi, Meerabai Institute of Technology and G B Pant Institute of Technology in Southeast Delhi, Sir CV Raman ITI, Dheerpur in Central Delhi, and Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Bawana in North Delhi, among other places.
There will be 33 counting observers, officials said.
There were 13,780 polling booths where every vote was accounted for by the presiding officers which is a time-consuming exercise, Sandeep Saxena, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner, said at a press conference on Sunday.
Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh, a day ahead of the polls, had said all EVMs have been tested and they are "foolproof and non-tamperable".
(With inputs from agencies)
