Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The turnout in the Delhi Assembly election touched 46.55 per cent till 3 pm as voting on the 70 seats remained largely peaceful on February 5, an official said. There was a brief commotion at a polling booth in Seelampur where a bogus voter was caught casting a vote on someone else’s identity. The incident occurred at Aryan Public School, Booth Level Officer, Seelampur, Gayatri, said. BJP nominee from the seat, Anil Gaur, accused the rival Congress and the AAP of bringing 300-400 fake voters from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.
Special Commissioner of Police D.C. Srivastava confirmed getting complaints of attempted bogus voting. “Two persons have been detained on the allegation of bogus voting. The facts are being verified.” Till 3 p.m., Mustafabad seat recorded the highest turnout of 56.12 per cent followed by Seelampur with 54.29 per cent.
The New Delhi seat of AAP convenor and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recorded a turnout of 44.83 per cent by 3 pm. The Delhi Cantonment seat recorded 45.90 per cent voting. Chief Minister Atishi’s constituency recorded a turnout of 41.17 per cent till 3 p.m. Manish Sisodia’s Jungpura seat recorded 44.07 per cent voting ,
Other turnout trends were: Sangam Vihar 48.95 per cent, Badarpur 44.79 per cent, Tughlakabad 44.20 per cent, Okhla 42.70 per cent, Kasturba Nagar 41 per cent, Malviya Nager 41.77 per cent, Chhatarpur 50.08 per cent, Ambedkar Nagar 45.50 per cent, Deoli 44.98 per cent and Mehrauli 40.34 per cent.
AAP Jangpura nominee and former deputy Delhi chief minister Manish Sisodia alleged that rival parties were giving money to voters, a charge which was dismissed by police as ‘unsubstantiated’.
His party colleague and AAP MP Raghav Chadha alleged that at many polling booths in the New Delhi constituency, the party’s polling agents and their relievers faced problems in entry.
Earlier, former Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal and his wife gave up their car and walked down to their polling booth. Both of them escorted their parents, both in wheelchairs, to the booth at a school close to their Ferozeshah Road residence.
Kejriwal’s BJP rival Parvesh Verma performed religious rituals on the Yamuna bank before proceeding to cast his vote with his wife and daughter at the Nirman Bhawan booth.
Congress candidate from New Delhi Sandeep Dikshit cast his vote at a polling booth on Rahim Khan Road and later accompanied voters from the party and members of the Gandhi family – Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra – to their respective booths.
The turnout in the 2020 Delhi Assembly election stood at 62.82 per cent, 4.65 per cent lower than 67.47 per cent in 2015. In 2013, the turnout was 66.02 per cent, 8.42 per cent higher than 2008’s 57.6 per cent.
In 2020, the AAP won 62 out of 70 seats with a vote share of 53.57 per cent. The BJP won eight seats with a 38.51 per cent vote share. The Congress got 4.26 per cent of votes and others polled 3.66 per cent votes.
