The high-stakes civic polls in Delhi will be held today with the Aam Aadmi Party, the BJP and the contesting in the prestige battle. Over 1.45 crore electors are eligible to exercise their franchise in the elections to the 250 wards of the MCD, in which 1,349 candidates are in the fray. Polling will be held from 8 am to 5:30 pm and the votes will be counted on December 7.

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According to data shared by the State Election Commission officials, the total number of voters in Delhi is 1,45,05,358 -- 78,93,418 males, 66,10,879 females and 1,061 transgender persons. There are 250 wards in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

This will be the first civic election after the fresh delimitation exercise, and the poll will be held days after the first phase of the Gujarat assembly elections, and a day ahead of its second phase. Authorities have set up 13,638 polling stations across Delhi for the exercise.

There were 272 wards in Delhi and three corporations -- NDMC, SDMC and EDMC -- in Delhi from 2012-2022, before being reunified into an MCD that had formally come into existence on May 22. The erstwhile MCD, established in 1958, was trifurcated in 2012 during Sheila Dikshit's tenure as the chief minister.

While the BJP is eyeing a fourth straight term in the civic body, the AAP is hoping to turn the tide, riding on the anti-incumbency factor and buoyed by its victory in Punjab earlier this year. On the other hand, the Congress, which has suffered back-to-back drubbing in the national capital since 2015 in parliamentary, assembly and municipal corporations polls, will try to redeem itself with a notable performance this time. 

In the high decibel 13-day campaigning, the BJP leaders claimed victory in the election for 250 MCD wards on December 4 and mounted an all-out attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its convener Arvind Kejriwal over corruption.

AAP leaders led by Kejriwal attacked the BJP with equal vigour, raising issues such as landfills in the city and "corruption" during the saffron party's 15-year-rule at the municipal corporations.

Earlier this year, the BJP-ruled Centre unified the three corporations in the national capital into Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), reducing the number of wards from 272 to 250.

BJP national vice president and incharge of the party's Delhi unit Vaijayanti Panda claimed that the city voters will vote for development. "The BJP is going to secure a comfortable majority in the MCD," Panda said.

The AAP leadership has said it will win over 200 wards. Kejriwal had earlier claimed during the campaigning that the BJP will not secure more than 20 wards.

In the 2017 municipal corporation polls, the BJP trounced the AAP and the Congress, winning 181 of the 270 wards on which polls were held. The AAP in its debut civic body polls won 48 wards while the Congress bagged 30.

A day ahead of the poll, senior AAP leader and Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia accused the BJP of turning the national capital into a "mound of garbage".

"The BJP was in power in MCD for 15 years and it turned Delhi into a capital of garbage mounds and stray animals. This time, people will choose Arvind Kejriwal to make Delhi clean and beautiful," he said.

BJP leaders Sambit Patra and Union minister Anurag Thakur through back-to-back to press conferences, slammed the AAP and Kejriwal over corruption issues.

Among the other parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded 132 candidates while the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen headed by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi is contesting in 15 wards.

The Nationalist Congress Party has fielded candidates in 26 wards and Janata Dal (United) has 22 candidates in fray.

(With PTI inputs)