AAP shoots away to lead in 53 seats

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) surged into an early lead in the Delhi Assembly election with trends in the first hour of counting giving it leads in 53 seats, followed by the BJP in 13 and the Congress in one.

These are very early leads but they follow the exit poll predictions which forecast a comfortable victory for the AAP in the 70-member Assembly.

Counting began at 8 am amid tight security at various centres set. Postal ballots were counted first till around 8.30 am.

The counting centres are spread across 21 locations, spanning 70 constituencies. Each centre has several counting halls, equal to the number of constituencies falling in that district.

Each EVM consists of a ballot unit (BU), a controls units (CU) and a voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT.) After counting of votes through CUs from every constituency, five VVPATs will be randomly selected and counted.

The election, largely seen as a battle between the AAP and the BJP, was held on Saturday, sealing the fate of 672 candidates -- 593 men and 79 women. The final voter turnout was 62.59 per cent, five per cent less than 2015.