High voltage elections for the three municipal corporations passed off peacefully with State Election Commission recording a turnout of around 54 per cent in the polls amid complaints of faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal leading the charge. Kejriwal had tweeted claiming that he was getting calls about faulty EVMs from many places in the city.
Following a sluggish start at 8 am, voting gradually picked up and became fairly brisk as the heat waned towards the afternoon. The 2012 MCD polls had registered a 53.23 per cent turnout.
“The polling passed off peacefully and the North corporation’s Bakhtawarpur ward recorded the highest turnout at over 68 per cent, while south Delhi’s lado Sarai registered the least turnout at 39 per cent” said SK Srivastava the State Election Commissioner.
He said 18 electronic voting machines (EVMs) were replaced owing to battery or button related issues. “Out of 13,000 polling stations, EVMs were changed in only 18 polling stations. It shows our EVMs are unhackable, robust and no wrong can be done,” Srivastava said.
However, Kejriwal alleged in a tweet, “Reports from all over Delhi of EVM malfunction, people wid voter slips not allowed to vote. What is SEC doingIJ (sic).”
Polling was held in 270 of the 272 wards of the three municipal corporations. The election to two wards has been postponed due to the death of candidates.
A total of 1,32,10,206 voters were entitled to exercise their franchise in electing councilors for the 270 wards falling under the three corporations - NDMC (103), SDMC (104) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (63).
Two exit polls claimed that the BJP could be headed for a landslide victory in the polls and finish way ahead of the AAP and the Congress winning over 200 wards.
Going by the projected figures, the AAP could well be staring at a rout on its home turf, barely two years into its rise to power bagging a staggering 67 of the 70 Assembly seats, while the Congress’ attempt to regain ground may come a cropper.