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Delhi recorded a voter turnout of 57.06 per cent till 6 pm, even as polling at some booths was underway and the figure is likely to rise, Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh said on Saturday.
54% voter turnout recorded till 5 pm
Delhi recorded a voter turnout of 54 per cent by 5 pm on Saturday, poll officials said. There was a rise in the voting percentage after initial sluggishness, especially in morning hours.
“The polling percentage recorded till 5 pm is 54.14 per cent,” a Delhi CEO official said. Of the 11 districts, northeast Delhi recorded a turnout of 63.4 per cent, the highest, while New Delhi saw 44.29 per cent, the lowest.
6:45 pm: Delhi recorded a voter turnout of 54 per cent by 5 pm, poll officials said.
4:00 PM: Voting percentage improved slightly to over 41 per cent by 3 pm as Delhiites queued up to cast their votes for the Assembly election on Saturday, poll officials said.
The turnout was low considering that only three hours of voting hours were left, they said.
The polling was smooth and police maintained a strict vigil in sensitive areas.
Delhi Police personnel, along with paramilitary force, conducted flag marches in sensitive areas of northeast Delhi, Shahdara and east Delhi.
1:30 PM Delhi recorded 14.75 per cent voter turnout in the first three hours of polling on Saturday with long queues of voters being seen outside many booths as the day progressed.
12:30 PM Congress’ Chandni Chowk candidate Alka Lamba got into an altercation with an AAP worker outside a polling booth in the constituency. A video of the same has gone viral.
The video shows Lamba arguing with the AAP worker. Lamba alleged that the man used “very foul” and objectional language against her.
12:10 PM Senior BJP leader LK Advani has cast his vote
LK Advani at a polling station in New Delhi
11:45 AM The EC says that the turn out till 11 AM is 14.75 per cent.
11:00 AM Poll officials said 3.66 per cent votes were cast in the first hour of voting, which began at 8 am.
Former vice president Hamid Ansari and BJP national secretary Ram Lal were among those who queued up outside the Nirman Bhavan polling station in the first hour of voting.
Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, who is eyeing to repeat his party’s 2015 assembly performance, voted at the Rajpura Transport Authority polling station in the Civil Lines area.
Kejriwal, who is contesting the polls from the New Delhi seat, was accompanied by his wife Sunita and son Pulkit. Before leaving for voting, he sought his parents blessings.
President Ram Nath Kovind, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari have voted.
Minutes before polling began, Kejriwal tweeted, “Please go to cast vote. A special appeal to all the women - As your shoulder the responsibility at home, likewise, the responsibility of the country and Delhi is on your shoulders.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who led a very aggressive campaign and covered 60 assembly seats, appealed to voters to “free” the national capital from lies and votebank politics.
“By giving Delhi clean air, clean drinking water and every poor house, only the best capital of the world can make it a government with far-sighted thinking and strong intentions.
“I appeal to the people of Delhi to vote to free Delhi from lies and vote bank politics,” Shah tweeted.
BJP president J P Nadda also appealed to all the voters to vote in large numbers.
“Each vote of you is important for the unity and integrity of the country and holistic development of Delhi. Your vote only will be script the golden future of Delhi. ‘Pehle Matdan, Phir Jalpan’ Jai Hind,” Nadda tweeted.
Rahul Gandhi coming out of a polling booth after casting his vote
Polling began at 8 am and will end at 6 pm, an official said.
Voters coming out of a polling booth after casting their vote
The minimum temperature in the city on Saturday settled at 7 degrees Celsius, three notches below the season’s normal. Shallow fog engulfed some parts of the national capital, leading to ‘very poor’ air quality, a MeT official said.
9 AM
The polling for the 70-member Delhi Assembly got underway on Saturday morning, an election that saw the ruling AAP, opposition BJP and the Congress engaged in a bitterly fought high-octane campaign.
Over 1.47 crore people are eligible to exercise their franchise in the polls that will decide the fate of 672 candidates.
Security forces kept a tight watch across the 70 constituencies, with police and paramilitary personnel keeping an “extra vigil” in sensitive areas like Shaheen Bagh, Jamia Nagar and Seelampuri.
There are over 81 lakh male voters, 66.80 lakh female voters, and 869 third-gender voters, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ranbir Singh has said.
Around 2.33 lakh voters are in the age group of 18-19, 2.04 lakh voters are senior citizens aged 80, while there are 11,608 service voters, according to officials.
Prominent candidates in the fray include Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, Atishi and Raghav Chadha of the AAP; four former mayors -- Azad Singh, Yogender Chandolia, Ravinder Gupta and Khushi Ram -- of the BJP; and Shivani Chopra, daughter of Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra.
“Please go to cast vote. A special appeal to all the women - As your shoulder the responsibility at home, likewise, the responsibility of the country and Delhi is on your shoulders,” Kejirwal tweeted.
“All of you women do cast your vote and take along men with you. Do discuss with men about voting for whom will be right,” the chief minister added.
BJP president J P Nadda also appealed to all the voters to vote in large numbers.
“Each vote of you is important for the unity and integrity of the country and holistic development of Delhi. Your vote only will be script the golden future of Delhi. ‘Pehle Matdan, Phir Jalpan’ Jai Hind,” Nadda tweeted.
There are 13,750 polling booths, besides one auxiliary booth, located at 2,689 locations across Delhi.
“As far as critical polling stations are concerned, there are 516 locations and 3,704 booths in that category,” Singh said.
Besides police security, polling stations falling in the “critical category” have got paramilitary cover. Activities at such stations are being monitored through webcasting, officials said.
All five polling stations in Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of massive protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, are under critical category.
Counting of votes will take place on Tuesday.
The Aam Aadmi Party is hoping to repeat its stellar performance of the last assembly polls when it won 67 of the 70 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which bagged all the seven seats in Delhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, is aiming to dislodge the AAP, while the Congress is seeking to better its performance than last time when it drew a blank in the assembly polls.
The AAP had got 54.3 per cent votes in the 2015 polls, while the BJP secured 32 per cent and the Congress bagged just 9.6 per cent.
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