Delhi Showdown: BJP confident, AAP defiant

[8:14 pm, 07/02/2025] Shivam Jha: Infosys has terminated almost 700 freshers from its Mysuru campus, claims IT employees’ union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) today. The union claims that the freshers were being terminated after just a few months of joining the company.

The terminated freshers are asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, NITES said. May be to hush up the whole thing.

“In a shocking and unethical move, Infosys has started laying off around 700 campus recruits who were onboarded just a few months back,” said Harpreet Singh Saluja, NITES president.

NITES alleged that the company has deployed “bouncers and security personnel” during the termination process to intimidate employees.

So that the employees don’t carry mobile phones and are left with no w…

[8:44 pm, 07/02/2025] Shivam Jha: Delhi Showdown: BJP confident, AAP defiant

[8:44 pm, 07/02/2025] Shivam Jha: As the Delhi Assembly election results are about to be declared, drama and posturing have reached new heights with both BJP and AAP claiming they will form the government while the latter alleges attempts to poach its nominees.

Despite most exit polls giving a clear majority to BJP in 70-member Assembly, AAP is not buying it. Its National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal is citing attempts to poach his party’s candidates to claim that BJP is likely to fall short of majority mark of 36.

Political pundits are waiting for the results to see how much vote-pulling power of PM Narendra Modi and AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal.

A win for BJP will end 27-year exile from Delhi Darbar while a loss for AAP will end its three-election winning streak and may precipitate a crisis for the party which emerged from Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement in 2011.

While both BJP and AAP are claiming they will win clearly, Congress is hoping to open its account after a blank show in last two elections. In the current Assembly, AAP has 62 MLAs and BJP has 8.

Counting will start tomorrow at 8 am at 11 counting centres with each centre handling EVMs from 5 to 8 Assembly segments, said a Delhi election official.

It will be done before noon, said the official who added that since February 5, EVMs have been stored in 70 strong rooms under three-tier security and round-the-clock CCTV watch.

Fate of former CM Kejriwal and his challengers – BJP’s Parvesh Verma and Congress’ Sandeep Dikshit – will be decided at Gole Market counting centre in New Delhi constituency.

Counting of votes of CM Atishi in Kalkaji and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia in Jangpura will be at Maharani Bagh. As counting approaches, AAP is still attacking BJP for an attempted poach of its candidates. BJP has denied the allegations and Vishnu Mittal, General Secretary of Delhi BJP has written to L-G V.K. Saxena seeking a formal investigation and FIR against AAP leaders.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal called a meeting of all AAP MLAs at his residence in an attempt to keep the flock together in view of the alleged poaching attempts by the BJP.

Within hours of BJP’s complaint to L-G, ACB sleuths tried to meet Kejriwal at his residence in central Delhi but were not allowed inside.

ACB asks AAP to provide list of 16 party candidates who were offered bribes AAP parades candidates who received calls from BJP leaders claiming to poach them

ACB officials asked AAP chief to provide a list of 16 party candidates who were allegedly offered a bribe in the poaching bid. They also asked the former chief minister to share the phone numbers from which the AAP candidates had received the calls.

Allegations of poaching continued to swirl on Friday as AAP paraded its candidates who claimed to be receiving calls from BJP leaders.

AAP’s Dwarka nominee Vinay Mishra said a person claiming to be from ‘Gaali Galoch Party’ met him on Thursday and offered Rs 15 crore to join his party before the announcement on Saturday.

He said he rejected the offer and will remain with Arvind Kejriwal.

Earlier, Kejriwal in a post on X alleged that the Election Commission had refused to upload Form 17 C and number of votes polled per booth on the website – a charge denied by officials.

ECI said they followed all rules and were under no obligation to post the matter on any website as the documents had been given to polling agents.

Delhi CEO’s office responded by posting a message on social media: “As per Rule 49S of the Conduct of Election Rules 1961, all the Presiding Officer had furnished the account of votes recorded in Form 17C to polling agent present at the polling station on the day of poll, February 5, 2025. The rule has been complied with, in letter and spirit, at every polling station.”

On Thursday, the CEO had scrutinised election documents, including Form 17C of all 70 constituencies, and announced that in the absence of any complaint from candidates there was no need for a repoll on any seat.

The majority number in the 70-member Assembly is 36.

In 2020, AAP won 62 out of 70 seats. BJP won 8 seats.

In 2015, AAP won 67 seats, got 54.6% vote share.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP got 54% of the vote share in all 70 Assembly segments. Congress performed better than AAP and got 24% vote share against AAP’s 19%.

Turnout on February 5 was 60.42%.60.42%.