Delhi MCD poll: 50 per cent voter turnout recorded till 5.30 pm in the high-stakes election
New Delhi, December 4
Around 50 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 5:30 pm in the high-stakes election to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Sunday.
Voting is, however, going on at many polling stations where voters reported just before 5:30, authorities said, adding that the polling percentage is likely to go up.
Voting concluded at 5.30 pm.
While the turnout at 12.30 pm was 18 per cent, it rose to 30 per cent by 2.30 PM. Over 45 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 4 pm.
The previous civic body polls in 2017 had recorded 53 per cent voting.
The counting of votes will take place on December 7.
There are 1,349 candidates in fray and over 1.45 crore electors are eligible to exercise their franchise in the elections.
AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal cast his vote along with his parents, wife and children at a polling booth in Civil Lines here.
Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta cast his vote along with his wife at West Patel Nagar.
Anil Kumar, the Delhi Congress president, however, found his name missing from the voters’ list. “My name is neither in the voter list nor in the deleted list. My wife has voted. Officials are checking it,” Kumar said at a polling booth in Dallupura.
Among the early voters was 106-year-old Shanti Bala who reached the Deputy Ganj polling station in the Bara Hindu Rao area assisted by police personnel and her family members.
This is the first civic election after the fresh delimitation exercise. The MCD poll is being held days after the first phase of the Gujarat assembly elections, and a day ahead of its second phase where also the AAP’s entry has disrupted the political equation of the western coastal state.
This is also the first civic poll being held in the national capital after the February 2020 riots.
The erstwhile MCD, established in 1958, was trifurcated in 2012 during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure as chief minister. Between 2012 and 2022, Delhi had 272 wards and three corporations—North Delhi, South Delhi and East Delhi municipal corporations. These three civic bodies were reunified into the Municipal Corporation of Delhi which came into existence on May 22.
In the 2017 civic election, the BJP won 181 of the 270 wards. Polling could not be held on two seats due to the death of candidates. The AAP had won 48 wards and the Congress 27. The voting percentage that year was around 53 per cent.
