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Moderate to brisk voting was today witnessed in Delhi as 25% of the nearly 1.27 crore electorate exercised their franchise during the first four hours in the assembly polls where Congress, BJP and AAP are engaged in a tough contest.
"25% of the electorate have cast their votes till 11 AM. The polling has so far been peaceful and there are no reports of any untoward incident," officials in the Delhi Election Commission said.
Vice President Hamid Ansari, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal were among the early voters in the election to the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
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The Lok Sabha elections here are seen as test of Aam Aadmi Party's perceived erosion of support base, BJP's claim of having a 'Modi wave' besides assertion by Congress that it was regaining lost ground after suffering massive defeat in assembly polls in December.
Union Minister Kapil Sibal, Delhi BJP Chief Harsh Vardhan, Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken, Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev were also among the early voters.
A total of 1.27 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise, which include over 3.37 lakh first time voters. 150 candidates are in the fray. The polling began at 7 AM and will continue till 6 PM.
There are 29 contenders from New Delhi constituency, the highest for any seat, while the lowest of 14 is in North West seat.
Sonia, accompanied by Maken and Delhi Congress Chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, came to the polling station at Nirman Bhavan in Central Delhi at around 9:30 AM and went straight inside the booth to vote as there was no queue.
She is a voter in the New Delhi constituency from where Maken is contesting to retain the seat for the third consecutive term.
Talking to reporters Maken, who is contesting from prestigious New Delhi constituency, exuded confidence of regaining support of the Congress votebank which he said had gone to AAP in the Assembly polls four months back.
"People who voted for Arvind Kejriwal were traditional Congress voters who will vote for us this time. We will win all seven seats. There is no Modi wave," Maken told reporters.
