NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken an early lead in 97 wards over the Aam Aadmi Party which is leading in 42 other wards after an hour of reconing of votes underway for the December 4 Delhi Municipal election.
Congress is now in the lead in five wards.
Postal ballot votes for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections are now being tallied. EVM counting has not yet started.
At 42 centres, there were strict security precautions in place when voting for the 250 wards of the civic agency began at 8 a.m. on Wednesday.
About 10,000 police officers have been stationed at various counting centres, and 68 observers in all are monitoring the counting.
If there are any complaints, the electoral administration has sent engineers to investigate the technical problems with broken EVMs.
There are 1,349 candidates running for office.
The exit polls indicated that the AAP would triumph handily. Since the BJP has controlled the MCD for the previous 15 years, it has run an aggressive electoral campaign with the support of prominent BJP leaders.
Over 10,000 security personnel deployed ahead of counting of votes for MCD polls
There may be jams around the counting centers, avoid these areas
Gujarat elections: 64.39% voter turnout recorded in the 2nd phase