Largely seen as a three-way contest between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, voting began at 8 am for the high-stakes civic polls in Delhi on Sunday amid tight security arrangements across the city.
Over 1.45 crore electors are eligible to exercise their franchise in the elections to the 250 wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). According to data shared by State Election Commission officials, the total number of voters in Delhi is 1,45,05,358 — 78,93,418 males, 66,10,879 females and 1,061 transgender persons.
There are 1,349 candidates in the fray and votes will be counted on December 7. This is the first civic election after the fresh delimitation exercise, and the poll is being held days after the first phase of the Gujarat assembly elections, and a day ahead of its second phase.
Authorities have set up 13,638 polling stations across Delhi for the exercise. This is also the first civic poll being held in the national capital after the February 2020 riots here and as per data shared by officials, 3,360 booths, spanning 493 locations, have been identified in critical or sensitive categories.
Here are the latest updates from the polls:
Voting will conclude at 5.30 pm. The previous civic body polls in 2017 had recorded 53 percent voting. The counting of votes will take place on December 7.
Over 45 percent voter turnout was recorded till 4 pm in the high-stakes election to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Sunday.
MCD polls: National capital sees weak voter turnout with nearly 30 percent polling till 2 pm
Those calling themselves honest will get befitting reply, asserts Meenakashi Lekhi
A voter turnout of 18 percent was recorded in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections till 12 noon on Sunday. According to the State Election Commission (SEC), brisk polling is going on smoothly in all wards.
Being wheelchair bound or walking with crutches was not a deterrent for differently-abled Delhi residents who enthusiastically arrived at the polling booths on Sunday to make their vote count for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election.
In Subash Mohalla ward, names of 450 voters have been deleted from the voters list because they support BJP. This is a big conspiracy by the Delhi govt, will complain against this and appeal for cancellation of this polls and re-election: Manoj Tiwari, BJP MP.
"Don't vote for those who are corrupt...", says Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal after he casts vote with his family at a polling booth in Civil Lines.
Delhi winter casts its spell over morning voting trends, 9 pc of voters' turnout till 10:30 am.
BJP MP Parvesh Verma while casting his vote at a polling booth in Matiala village said that AAP was claiming to form govt in Goa, Uttarakhand & UP but people know they have a habit of lying. "During COVID, no one from AAP was seen working for the people. Only MCD workers were standing with people. We're getting around 210 seats out of 250 in the MCD polls," said Verma.
People should see candidates and vote accordingly, says Congress' Ajay Maken as he casts his vote at a polling booth in Rajouri Garden in the national capital.
Congress leader Alka Lamba casts her vote for Delhi MCD election 2022 at a polling booth in Raghubir Nagar. "I appeal to people to come out of their homes and vote. People should vote for change," she says
All wholesale and retail markets in the national capital will remain closed on Sunday in view of the civic body polls here. The Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) said popular markets, including Lajpat Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Kamla Nagar, Karol Bagh, Laxmi Nagar among others will remain closed.
AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday urged people in the city to exercise their franchise for setting up an honest and performing establishment in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
Controlling pollution, doubling the income of municipalities and clearing all three landfill sites in Delhi are among the top priorities of the Congress for the upcoming MCD elections in its manifesto released on Saturday.
There were 272 wards in Delhi and three corporations -- NDMC, SDMC and EDMC -- from 2012-2022, before being reunified into an MCD that had formally come into existence on May 22. The erstwhile MCD, established in 1958, was trifurcated in 2012 during Sheila Dikshit's tenure as the chief minister.
In the civic election in 2017, the BJP had 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. In 2017 civic polls, the voting percentage was about 53.First Published: Dec 4, 2022 8:48 AM IST
