Delhi breaks three-decade old voters’ turnout record

In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the overall voting percentage for Delhi was recorded at 51.85 per cent while the highest voter turnout ever in the history Delhi Lok Sabha poll is 71.3 per cent recorded in the parliamentary elections held after the Emergency was lifted in 1977.

The December 2013 Delhi assembly elections had witnessed a turnout of 66.1 per cent. While out of the 1.27 crore eligible voters in Delhi, over 82.65 lakh people exercised their franchise yesterday, in 2013 assembly polls, 78.75 lakh out of 1.19 crore eligible voters had done the same.

‘This has become a reality. Delhi residents have broken the 'urban apathy' tag and came out in large numbers, especially women and youth, to exercise their franchise,’ said Delhi chief electoral officer Vijay Dev.

Among the seven parliamentary constituencies, the highest turnout of 67.13 per cent was recorded in Chandni Chowk, while the lowest was recorded in North West with 61.38 per cent.

Another achievement of the Election Commission in this election is that it has been able shorten the gap between men and women voting turnout as compared to 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

In 10 April poll, 65.75 per cent men and 63.64 per cent women cast their votes in the triangular among Congress, BJP and newbie Aam Aadmi Party. In 2009, the voting percentage of men and women were 53.6 per cent and 49.6 per cent respectively.

A total of 150 candidates are in the fray. The prominent contenders include Union ministers Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath, Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan, Congress general secretary Ajay Maken, journalist-turned-politician Ashutosh, Sandeep Dikshit (Cong), AAP’s Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi and Mahesh Giri.

‘It was an incident-free election. No cases of EVM malfunctioning was reported from anywhere, although some minor glitches were reported from some places, which were sorted out immediately’, Dev said.

Dev said the Commission’s first time initiative of providing wheelchairs and volunteers at each polling station to ensure better accessibility to differently-abled voters has been appreciated a lot and would be replicated at the national level in next elections. To improve voter’s experience, the Commission increased.