All preparations have been completed and over 1.27 crore Delhiites will use their franchise in the seven Parliamentary constituencies on Thursday. This is the first time that polling time has been increased by the Election Commission of India.
The North-West Delhi lok Sabha seat (a reserved seat) is the largest constituency in the Capital, having 21,93,427 electors while Chandni Chowk is the smallest seat having 14,47026 electors. Addressing a Press conference, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev said that total 1,27,06,372 crore electors will vote and out of which, 70,47,885 are men, 56,57,648 women and 839 transgenders.
“All arrangement has been made to this effect. We have completed all the preparations to conduct free and fair election on April 10. This time around polling hours have been increased by two hours and it will be conducted from 7 am to 6 pm,” Dev said.
The decision to extend the polling hours has been taken following the “historic” turnout in the recent Delhi Assembly elections. Dev on Tuesday said he was hopeful of even better polling percentage in this election and appealed to Delhi residents to come out and vote.
In 2009 lok Sabha polls, the overall voting percentage stood at 52.3 per cent, which increased to 66 per cent in the 2013 Delhi Assembly election. To ensure peaceful and fair elections, deployment of adequate security personnel has also been made, he said.
“Total 11,768 polling booths have been set up in 2,527 locations across the city. Arrangements for 247 auxiliary polling booths were also made. A total of 150 candidates are in the fray. The electorate include over 3.37 lakh first time voters. Election Commission has this time done away with provision of voter cards and voter slips being mandatory to cast vote. Voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm,” Dev added.
He said mobile phones will not be allowed inside the polling stations and requested the electors to adhere to this rule and leave them at homes or in their vehicles. The Chief Electoral Officer said a matrix of 88 inter-State checkpoints and 491 intra-Delhi nakas has been laid to ensure peaceful environment and stop undue influence of musclemen, illicit liquor and black money.