One minute read. Written by a grade 9 student.

Assembly elections for Delhi are going to be held soon – on the 8^th of February 2020. 70 members will be elected to the Delhi Legislative Assembly. The results will be declared on 11th February 2020. The term of current assembly elected in 2015 will expire on 22 February 2020. The election schedule was announced by Election Commission of India on 6 January 2020.

The last Assembly elections were held in February of 2015, after which Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) formed a majority government, with Arvind Kejriwal as the Chief Minister.

What is a Legislative Assembly?  

The Legislative Assembly, which is called the Vidhan Sabha in Hindi, is a body (the lower house) that has the authority to make laws in the States and Union Territories of India. Each Member of the Legislative Assembly, called an MLA, is directly elected to serve for a 5 year term.

Is Delhi a state or a union territory?

Delhi, officially called the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT), is a city and a union territory of India, which comprises of New Delhi, the capital of India. Many times Delhi and New Delhi are used interchangeably when referring to the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT), these are actually two different entities. New Delhi is a small part of Delhi. The National Capital Region, on the other hand, is much bigger and comprises the entire NCT along with adjoining districts in neighbouring states.

As for whether it is a state or union territory, it’s a little complicated. Till 1991, Delhi had a status of Union Territory in which the decision making power was with the President of India. But, in 1991, the 69th Amendment to the Constitution of India declared Union Territory of Delhi to be formally known as National Capital Territory of Delhi. A special provision was added which renamed the Union Territory of Delhi to the National Capital Territory (NCT) and the administrative powers were given to the Lieutenant Governor. Since then, there has been confusion regarding the role and powers in the hands of democratically elected government of Delhi. So, in a way we can say that Delhi is a semi-state under a Lieutenant Governor and a Chief Minister with a 70 member Legislative Assembly.

Who all are fighting the elections?

The main parties contesting the elections are The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party. AAP has already announces its list of 70 candidates. The Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be contesting (again) from New Delhi and his deputy Manish Sisodia from Patparganj seat.

The BJP and the Congress party have not announced their candidates yet.