53.7% turnout in Delhi as Capital seals LS fate
A voter turnout of 53.73% was recorded till 5pm in Delhi, where polling is underway for its seven Lok Sabha constituencies on Saturday.
The office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said that at 57.97%, the highest turnout was in the North East Delhi while the New Delhi seat had the lowest voting percentage at 50.44%.
According to data from the poll body, the turnout at 5pm in East Delhi was at 53.69%, Chandni Chowk at 53.27%, North West Delhi at 53.17%, South Delhi at 51.84% and West Delhi 54.15%.
Poll officials said there were no reports of technical snags or delays in the commencement of voting at any polling station.
Union ministers S Jaishankar and Hardeep Singh Puri, AAP leader Atishi, outgoing East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir, and candidates of different parties cast their votes early in the morning.
President Droupadi Murmu and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar also cast their votes in the New Delhi constituency, officials said.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a post in Hindi on X, appealed to the people to vote and urge their family members, relatives and friends to also exercise their franchise.
“...Each vote cast by you in this great festival of democracy will be against the authoritarian mindset and strengthen democracy and the Constitution of India. Go to the polling stations and assert that there is democracy in India and democracy will remain in India through your votes,” Kejriwal said.
A ‘yellow’ warning is in place for the day and the Met office has predicted that the mercury is likely to reach a maximum of 44 degrees Celsius.
The Delhi poll body has said that it has made arrangements for the voters to beat the scorching heat.
People were seen queuing up outside the more than 13,000 polling booths across the seven constituencies even before voting began at 7 am.