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The high-stakes Delhi municipal polls on Sunday saw a turnout of around 53 per cent, with a sluggish start and a brisk end, even as rancour over “faulty electronic voting machines (EVMs)” coloured the entire exercise with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal railing at the state election body.
As the dust settled, the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which based its campaign largely on the image and popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appeared confident of pulling off a victory, two years after the assembly poll debacle.
The figures shared by State Election Commissioner (SEC) S K Srivastava suggested that the polling percentage could inch past the 2012-mark of 53.23 per cent, which was the highest in 15 years.
The BJP and the Congress had then bagged 138 and 54 seats, respectively. This time, the counting will be held on April 26.
North Corporation’s Bakhtawarpur ward recorded highest turnout at a little over 68 per cent, while south Delhi’s Lado Sarai registered the least turnout at 39 per cent.
Despite a sluggish start, as the day progressed, people trooped out in large numbers to exercise their franchise.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which the exit polls suggested was headed for a drubbing, led the charge against the Commission over technical glitches in EVMs, which the party has claimed can be “tampered with”.
Kejriwal alleged in a tweet, “Reports from all over Delhi of EVM malfunction, people wid voter slips not allowed to vote. What is SEC doing? (sic).”
Srivastava said 18 EVMs were replaced owing to battery or button issues. “Of 13,000 polling stations, EVMs were changed in only 18. It shows our EVMs are unhackable, robust and no wrong can be done,” he said.
“If the chief minister of Delhi has raised some questions on EVMs, and if it has even one bit of truth, then the Commission should look into the matter and ensure that the trust of people on the electoral process does not get hit,” Jaiveer Shergill of the Congress, said.
On allegations that voting slips were not properly distributed in some areas, he said people were welcome to approach the Commission with genuine grievances.
There were no reports of violence. However, a candidate of Yogendra Yadav-led Swaraj India claimed he was roughed up by a Congress candidate and his supporters during polling at a booth in Rohini after he tried to stop him from carrying out “bogus voting”.
Polling was held in 270 of 272 wards of the three municipal bodies — North Delhi Municipal Corporation (103), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (104) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (63). 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 councillors for the 270 wards falling under the three corporations — North Delhi Municipal Corporation (103), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (104) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (63).
The verdict will determine the standing of the three main players — the AAP, the BJP and the Congress — in Delhi and its ripples will be felt beyond the city's borders, as it comes within 10 days of the Rajouri Garden bypoll where the Kejriwal-led party had finished third.
Incidentally, in May last year, bypolls to 13 wards were held, in which the AAP had finished on top with five seats, followed by the Congress with 4, the BJP at 3. One seat had gone to an independent candidate.
