The Election Commission of India on Tuesday announced the long-awaited schedule of the general elections to the legislative assembly of NCT of Delhi. The voting will take place on February 5 in all 70 constituencies and the counting will be held on February 8.

The ECI also announced the bye-elections to two assembly constituencies will be held with the same time-table. These are:  Milkipur in Uttar Pradesh, following the resignation of Awadhesh Prasad, and Erode (East) in Tamil Nadu, necessitated by the death of E.V.K.S. Elangovan.

After the surprising victories in Haryana and Maharashtra elections late last year, the BJP has come out of the slight despondency that might have affected it following the less-than-expected performance in the Lok Sabha polls. It goes to polls in Delhi with confidence. Prime minister Narendra Modi last week launched a series of infrastructure projects – housing, metro, rail connectivity – to make an all-out attack on the ruling Aam Aadmi Party.

For AAP, the elections will be a referendum of sorts on the crucial question of the image of their two top leaders, former chief minister (and party convenor) Arvind Kejriwal and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia. Both are facing charges of corruption and faced long jail terms before bail last year. Claiming innocence, they accuse the BJP-led government at the centre of misusing central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to target political rivals despite lack of any evidence.

They hope their rapport with Delhiites, which won them a record 67 of 70 seats in 2015 and 63 again in 2020, will continue this time too. To be on the safe side, the party has announced it will pay Rs 2,100 to every eligible woman in the capital if it came to power.

The Congress, which under Sheila Dikshit ruled Delhi for three terms before the advent of AAP, is the third player. For the past two terms, it has had no representative in the Delhi assembly, but it would like to return to the House. While the AAP and Congress were partners in the opposition alliance for the national elections last year, they are fighting separately – and also each other – in this contest. In the case of a hung assembly, these two are more likely to join hands, as they had done in 2013-14.