Delhi Assembly elections 2020: All you need to know about Chandni Chowk Vidhan Sabha constituency

Chandni Chowk constituency: The seat will go for polls on February 8. Alka Lamba, who had won this seat for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the 2015 assembly elections, is contesting once again from the seat, this time as a Congress candidate.

There lies a twist, however. Prior to 2015, Chandni Chowk used to be a Congress bastion, having successfully elected Parlad Singh Sawhney of the grand old party, during the, 2003, 2008, and the 2013 Delhi state assembly elections. This year, Parlad Singh Sawhney will be contesting the Chandni Chowk assembly constituency as a candidate of the AAP.

In 2015, AAP's Alka Lamba had won the assembly seat with 36,756 votes, defeating BJP's Suman Kumar Gupta by a margin of 18,287 votes. Congress' Parlad Singh Sawhney had received 17,930 votes.

Alka Lamba quit AAP in September 2019 citing disrespect for her within the party. Later, in the same month, she formally joined the Congress. Meanwhile, Parlad Singh Sawhney joined the AAP.

This year, against Congress' Alka Lamba, AAP has fielded Parlad Singh Sawhney, the veteran of the assembly constituency. The BJP has decided to field Suman Kumar Gupta once again.

Chandni Chowk assembly constituency, in Central Delhi, is one the smallest constituencies in the national capital in terms of electorate. It is, however, dominated by several businesses and is hence politically significant.

This constituency has 1,13,784 prospective voters, out of which 62,723 are male and 51,055 are female, and 6 are transgenders.

In the Delhi Assembly Elections 2020, AAP will be contesting from all 70 seats for the assembly polls while BJP will be contesting on 67 seats, with its ally Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) contesting on the remaining three seats.

On the other hand, Congress will fight on 66 seats and its ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will fight on the remaining 4 seats.

Polling will be held at 13,750 polling stations. According to the poll body chief, total electors in the final electoral roll of the NCT of Delhi as on January 6, 2020, are 1,46,92,136.

The polls for all the seats will be held on February 8, 2020, and the results will be declared on February 11, 2020.

It is to be noted that in 2015, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had a landmark victory after it secured 67 of the total 70 seats in the state legislature. The party is now eyeing a second consecutive term banking on freebies that it provided to Delhiites including free water, free electricity up to 200 units, free ride for women in DTC and cluster buses, among other measures.