Moment of truth: MCD poll results today

With the fate of candidates in the Municpal Corporation elections in Delhi being sealed in the EVMs on Sunday, all eyes are now on the counting of votes, which is all set to begin Wednesday morning. Despite their claims of victory, tension is clearly visible among the candidates.

Hours before counting, the city's three major parties – Aam Aadmi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress – have claimed that they will sweep the municipal elections.

The issue of alleged "rigging" of EVMs too was also being discussed hours before counting began and the matter is likely to hit headlines once the results are declared.

The future of 2,537 candidates from 270 Municipal Corporations wards will now be decided with 72 polling centers across the city counting a total of 1,32,10,206 votes that were cast on Sunday. The elections to two wards were postponed due to the death of candidates.

The overall counting is expected to last anywhere between two to three hours.

Sunday's elections recorded a turnout of 54 percent; in 2012, the number was 53.23 percent.

Exit polls conducted by ABP News predicted that the BJP would get 218 seats out of 272 seats. The AAP, which runs the Delhi government, was predicted to win 24 seats, while the Congress was pegged to get 22.

Meanwhile, an India Today-Axis exit poll gave BJP a lead of between 202 and 220 seats. It said that the BJP would clinch between 78 and 84 seats in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, 79-85 in the South and 45-51 in the East.

It also put AAP and the Congress neck-to-neck for second place, with the former just about inching ahead with 23-35 seats as against 19-31 for the latter.

After declaration of the exit poll results, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari lauded the people for coming out and voting despite the hot weather. He exuded confidence that the people of Delhi have decided to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development "journey". "The people have voted for the development agenda, for a better Delhi and that despite the heatwave," Tiwari said.

AAP, meanwhile, expressed apprehension that the MCD polls might be "rigged" and that ground was being prepared by "floating" exit polls predicting a BJP sweep. However, the Election Commission maintained that all EVMs were tamper-proof and the latest variants had additional features such as 'tamper detection' and 'self diagnostics'.

Earlier, DPCC president Ajay Maken had claimed that an internal survey conducted by the Congress had predicted 208 seats in its favour.