AAP, BJP locked in capital contest as voting gathers pace; last hour to go – assembly elections

The voting in Delhi Assembly elections is being held on Saturday, where 1.4 crore voters will choose between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which is seeking a re-election, the BJP which is hoping to make a comeback, and Congress which is seeking to revive itself.

The voting, however, began on a slow note on Saturday morning. Till 4 pm, 42.70 per cent of voters had come out to exercise their franchise. The Delhi Chief Election Officer, however, said that this is not the final turnout and that data is still being compiled.

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It released an updated figure of 45.23 per cent till 3 pm, which showed voting had picked up pace in the afternoon. The highest voter turnout of 46.84 per cent was recorded in Shahdara, while the lowest 41.76 per cent was in central Delhi, said officials.

The trend started with an abysmally low voter turnout of 1.77 per cent in the first hour of voting. At 10 am, the turnout climbed to 5.6 per cent, and by 11 am, the Election Commission’s Voter Turnout app showed 7.47 per cent of voter turnout. By this time in 2015, nearly 20 per cent voters had exercised their franchise in the Assembly elections.

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At 12 noon, just over 15 per cent of voters had exercised their franchise. Till 2 pm, the voter turnout was nearly 28 per cent, compared to 42 per cent turnout in 2015.

The polling will end at 6 pm.

Delhi had recorded a voter turnout of 67.12 per cent in the last assembly elections held in 2015.

In the last elections, Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had registered a landslide victory by winning 67 of the 70 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had got three seats and the Congress zero.

Out of the total number of eligible voters, there are 81,05,236 male voters and 66,80,277 female voters. Besides this, there are 869 third gender voters.

As many as 13,571 polling stations are there at 2,688 locations. Out of these, 3,141 are critical polling stations and 144 are vulnerable polling stations.