Elections to the 70 Assembly seats in Delhi will be held on February 5 and the votes counted on February 8, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on Tuesday.

The AAP, which has ruled the capital since late 2013 with a year of President’s rule in between, faces a combative BJP that has cornered the government on corruption and a Congress that is trying to regain its base among working-class and minority voters.

The last date to file nominations is January 17 and their scrutiny will be done by January 18. Candidates will be able to withdraw their nominations till January 20.

The Election Commission on Tuesday said more than 1.55 crore people were eligible to vote, at 13,000 polling stations.

By-elections to the Assembly seats of Milkipur in Uttar Prades and Erode in Tamil Nadu will also be held on February 5.

Chief election commissioner Kumar urged political parties to maintain decorum during the elections and said the poll panel would conduct checks to ensure free and fair polls.

“It is the duty of star campaigners and those involved in political campaigns to take care of etiquette. If someone says something about women, we will be very, very harsh; this is our warning,” Kumar said.

Delhi chief minister Atishi had broke down during a media conference on Monday over BJP leader Ramesh Bidhuri's remarks against her.

The AAP has accused the BJP of trying to delete the names of genuine voters, including its MP Sanjay Singh’s wife. At a media conference, the AAP showed "evidence" of deletion applications being filed under false names to allegedly circumvent the cap on the number of deletion pleas that a single person can file.

CEC Kumar said: “Where every vote matters, raising doubts about the deletion of thousands of names without evidence is misleading. The processes we follow leave no room for manipulation.”

Delhi’s chief electoral officer Alice Vaz said on Monday: “An unprecedented rush for Form 6 for new voter registration was noticed since December 16. Over 5.1 lakh applications under Form 6 have been received in Delhi since then.”

FIRs have been filed against 24 people for allegedly using false documents to register themselves as voters, Vaz said.

CEC Kumar said he would write to the cabinet secretary to ensure that no Delhi-specific schemes were announced in the Union budget, to be presented on February 1.

“After the declaration of the SSR (special summary revision) by Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Punjab, which will be declaring SSR results today, we will be crossing 99 crore voters for the first time," Kumar said.