Voting for three municipal corporations of Delhi ended with a turnout of around 54 per cent. The poll considered crucial for all the three main contenders — the BJP, the Congress and the AAP — saw some controversies with complaints of EVM glitches and voters being turned away from polling booths despite having valid voting slips.
However, the polling remained peaceful as the election commission ensured elaborate security arrangements with over 56,000 officials of the Delhi Police and the Central Para Military Forces standing guard at 13,022 polling booths.
“The entire electoral exercise passed off peacefully. The overall turnout was around 54 per cent,” said State Election Commissioner SK Srivastava, adding that North corporation’s Bakhtawarpur ward recorded the highest turnout of 68 per cent, while South Delhi’s lado Sarai registered the least turnout of 39 per cent.
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.
The 2012 MCD polls had registered a 53.23 per cent turnout.
The initial hours of polling, which began at 8 am, registered a low turnout. However, it picked the pace as the day progressed. Men and women stood in long queues braving the scorching sun to cast vote at polling stations.
As the polling progressed, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged that reports of EVM malfunctioning came from all over the Capital. He tweeted that many people with voter slips were not allowed to vote.
By 3 pm, the AAP claimed, its “War Room” received 250 calls from voters complaining about non-functional EVMs. The complaints came from several areas, including Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s constituency Patparganj, it said.
BJP leader Arvinder Singh lovely, who recently quit the Congress and joined the BJP, was among those who could not cast their vote early in the morning due to the glitches in the EVM at a polling booth in East Azad Nagar area.
“I reached the polling station at 8 am. But, I could not cast my vote as the EVM was not working. I had to leave the place due to some urgent work. I will later go to exercise my franchise,” said lovely.
According to State Election Commission, a total of 2,537 candidates were in the fray. Besides AAP, BJP and Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party, the Janata Dal(United) and Swaraj India of Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan are also fielding their candidates in several municipal wards.
Polling did not take place in two wards — Maujpur in East Delhi and Sarai Pipal Thala in North Delhi — where a candidate each of the Samajwadi Party died, hence voting was held for 270 wards.
The three civic bodies cover 68 of the 70 Assembly constituencies in Delhi. The two smaller civic bodies are the Delhi Cantonment Board as well as the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).
lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken and Delhi BJP leaders, including union Ministers Dr Harsh Vardhan, Vijay Goel, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari, lok Sabah members Meenakshi lekhi, Ramesh Vidhuri, Parvesh Verma were among the early voters.
“I urge the people of Delhi to vote for a filth-free Delhi, a dengue- and chikungunya-free Delhi,” said Kejriwal after voting along with his family.
Asked if the election was a referendum on his Government’s two-year performance, he replied: “We will see when the results come (on Wednesday).”
“The BJP has done enough damage for 10 years. The only thing it has done is engaging in verbal duels with the AAP. People want sensible governance. Going by Congress’ track record, they will vote for us,” Kejriwal said.
BJP MP Meenakshi lekhi blamed the Kejriwal Government for the Capital mess and said she was confident her party would again control the civic body.
Through the day, EVMs which broke down were either quickly repaired or replaced by functional ones. Nine complaints of glitches in EVMs were received by the State Election Commission, causing hardships to electors who braved the scorching heat to cast their vote.
“Glitches in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were reported from nine polling stations. They were replaced and voting resumed,” Srivastava said. Out of the nine complaints, five were received from north Delhi, three from south Delhi and one from east Delhi, he added.
Meanwhile, annoyed over the delay in sending poll percentage by the officials concerned, the SEC has decided to issue memo to them. “There has been a delay on the part of the officials concerned in sending poll percentage data to a control room which has been set up at the SEC headquarters. It has been decided to issue memo to them,” an official said.