The BJP could be headed for a landslide victory in the Delhi municipal polls with two exit polls predicting the party finishing way ahead of the AAP and the Congress with over 200 of the 270 wards where polling was held on Sunday.

Going by the projected figures, the AAP could well be staring at a rout on its home turf, barely two years into its rise to power, bagging a staggering 67 of the 70 Assembly seats, while the Congress’ attempt to regain ground may come a cropper.

According to the India Today-Axis exit poll, the BJP may bag anything between 202 and 220 seats, while the AAP and the Congress will score 23-35 and 19-31, respectively.

The CVoter-ABP exit poll claimed the BJP was likely to sweep Delhi with 218 seats, limiting the AAP and the Congress to 24 and 22 seats, respectively.

Around 46 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise till 4 pm on Sunday in elections to all the three municipal corporations here, with North Delhi leading the tally.

According to the State Election Commission, over 59.12 lakh votes were polled since the morning.

“The entire electoral exercise passed off peacefully,” said State Election Commissioner SK Srivastava. “We are very hopeful that the final (voter turnout) tally will be beyond 54 per cent — the voting percentage in the 2012 civic body polls in Delhi.”

“Around 22.2 lakh people cast their vote in areas under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation,” the SEC said.

“In South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) areas 22 lakh votes were polled, while in East Delhi, the figure stood at 14.8 lakh,” said a senior official of the Commission.

The elections to two wards were postponed due to the death of the candidates, so voting was held in only 270 wards.

Meanwhile, annoyed over the officials’ delay in sending poll turnout data, the SEC has decided to issue memos to them.

“There has been a delay on the part of the officials concerned in sending poll percentage data to a control room which has been set up at the SEC headquarters. It has been decided to issue memos to them,” an official said.

Many Delhiites who braved the scorching sun to reach polling stations to cast their votes had to return home disappointed as their names were missing from the electoral rolls.

Such complaints were received from various wards across the city.

An SEC official said the voters’ list is upgraded regularly and voters are provided the opportunity to rectify any error in it, failing which problems are encountered in casting votes.

Voters in a few municipal wards also faced problems as Electronic Voting Machines at some polling booths did not work properly.

Former Delhi Minister and BJP leader Arvind Singh Lovely could not cast his vote early morning as there were some problems in the EVMs at the polling booth in East Azad Nagar area.

There were also complaints of faulty EVMs in North Delhi Burari area, South West Delhi’s Kapashera and GTB ward.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took on the SEC saying reports of “faulty” EVMs were pouring in from across the national capital on polling day.

The AAP supremo also alleged that many voters with valid voter slips were “not allowed” to exercise their franchise in the municipal polls. Kejriwal had earlier demanded that the election be postponed till arrangements for VVPAT (Voter-verifiable paper audit trail)-equipped EVMs were introduced.

One SEC official admitted that there were reports of “technical glitches” from a few places but added that the faults were rectified.

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