Congress will not extend support to AAP, says Ajay Maken

The Delhi Congress leader's statement came just as voting got underway in a tightly-fought elections

As polling got underway in Delhi, Congress leader Ajay Maken on Saturday said that his party will neither take nor extend any support to the Aam Aadmi Party for government formation. 

"We will neither take nor extend any support to AAP for Government formation," he told mediapersons here.

The Congress leader also urged the people of Delhi to vote judiciously.

"I would like to tell people of Delhi to vote judiciously because Delhi unlike other states has multiplicity of authorities, complex issues of administrative nature confronting Delhi and we need a chief minister who is successfully able to wade through such complex issues and give good governance to Delhi," he said.

Earlier in the day, former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit had termed the assembly elections in the national capital a 'three-cornered contest', adding that the results were difficult to predict.

Polling for the 70-member Delhi assembly began at 8 a.m. amid tight security.

According to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi, all arrangements are in place to ensure free and fair polling.

About 55,000 police personnel have been deployed to ensure hassle free voting. The police will also undertake patrolling in different parts of the capital to prevent the distribution of liquor, money or any other allurements.

The over 1.33 crore electorate will decide the fate of 673 candidates.

With 18 candidates, the Burari Assembly constituency has the maximum number of persons contesting, Ambedkar Nagar has the lowest at 4.

Chief Election Commissioner Hari Shankar Brahma has expressed confidence that voters would be allowed to exercise their franchise safely and in well secured electronic voting booths.

Voting will continue till 6 p.m. in the evening. Polling will take place at 12,177 polling stations. Of these, 714 have been declared as critical and 191 as highly critical.

Each assembly constituency has a model polling booth where facilities like drinking water and chairs will be provided to voters.

Voters have been granted a paid holiday today to cast their votes.