As voting in Delhi Assembly elections began on Saturday morning, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the people of Delhi to exercise their franchise. He also made special appeal to the women of Delhi to take the responsibility of the city-state too like the way they do for their home.
Full Coverage of Delhi Assembly Elections
“Please cast your vote. And a special appeal to the women of Delhi - the way you take responsibility of your home, the same way the responsibility of the country and Delhi is on your shoulders. All the women should vast their vote, and take the men along. Discuss with them who would be the right choice,” Kejriwal said on Twitter in Hindi on Saturday morning.
Polling for 70 Assembly Constituencies in Delhi began at 8 am on Saturday, and will end at 6 pm. Over 1.47 crore people are eligible to exercise their franchise in the polls that will decide the fate of 672 candidates.
{{/usCountry}}Polling for 70 Assembly Constituencies in Delhi began at 8 am on Saturday, and will end at 6 pm. Over 1.47 crore people are eligible to exercise their franchise in the polls that will decide the fate of 672 candidates.
{{/usCountry}}Security forces are keeping a tight watch across all the 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.
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.
“Today people of Delhi will vote for quality education, healthcare, women’s safety and good governance. I have no doubt that Delhi will lead the way in defeating the politics of hate and set an example for the entire country. Jai Hind,” AAP’s Atishi said on Twitter.
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 (BJP), 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.