Delhi Assembly Elections 2020: Over 5% voter turnout recorded till 10 am

The polling
percentage was recorded at 5.51% at 10:00 am on Saturday as voting in the
high-stakes Delhi assembly election began across the 70 assembly constituencies
at 8am, the Election Commission of India officials said.

Delhi had
recorded a voter turnout of 67.12% in the 2015 assembly elections.

More than
14.7 million voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the Delhi
assembly election for the 672 candidates in the fray in the keenly-watched
battle for the national capital.

There are
81,05,236 male voters, 66,80,277 female voters and 869 third gender voters.
They queued up to vote in the 13,571 polling booths across 2689 areas in the
Capital.

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.

The AAP is
contesting on all the 70 seats, while the BJP has fielded its candidates on 67
seats and has left three seats for its allies—two for Janata Dal(United) and
one for Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

On the other
hand, Congress is contesting on 66 seats and has given four seats to its ally
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Kejriwal’s
AAP is hoping to retain power for the second consecutive term and the BJP is
looking to win by cashing in on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal.

The
Congress, which was in power for 15 years at a stretch in Delhi under the
leadership of former chief minister late Sheila Dixit till the party lost to
the AAP in 2015 polls, is hoping for a revival.

The AAP has
focused on local governance issues and its track record in the past five years
and the BJP campaigned on the larger ideological issue of the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act and national security.

Chief
minister Kejriwal is contesting from prestigious New Delhi seat and the BJP has
fielded Sunil Yadav against him while Congress nominated Romesh Sabbarwal from
the seat.

The AAP’s
Dilip Pandey is contesting from Timarpur, Atishi from Kalkaji, Raghav Chadha
from Rajender Nagar.

The BJP has
fielded Vijender Gupta from Rohini. Former AAP leader Kapil Mishra is the BJP
candidate from Model Town in this election. Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga is a BJP
candidate from Hari Nagar.

Congress has
fielded Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar. Former AAP leader Alka Lamba
is a Congress candidate from Chandni Chowk. Haroon Yusuf is contesting from
Ballimaran.

To ensure
peaceful polling in all the 70 assemblies, as many as 190 companies of Central
Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have been deployed. Besides this, 19,000 Home Guards
and 42,000 Delhi Police personnel are also on duty.

Additional
staff from the PCR, traffic, and communication have also been pressed into
service to man the polling booths.