SDMC area saw fall in vote percentage against 2012 MCD polls

Wards falling under the South Delhi Municipal Corporation have witnessed a slight fall in voting percentage this year vis-a-vis 2012 when civic polls were held for the first time after trifurcation of the MCD.

The polls held on April 23 saw a voter turnout of 53.58 per cent, with the final tally of votes coming in just before midnight, as a ward in south Delhi had witnessed "extremely brisk voting" late that evening.

As many as 71,39,994 votes were polled on Sunday for elections to 270 of the 272 wards, spanning over the three corporations.

The election to two wards, one each in the NDMC and EDMC, has been postponed due to the death of candidates.
 

An electorate of over 1.32 crore were eligible to vote in the polls. While the male vote share stood at 54.04 per cent, the figure for women was pegged at 53.02. As many as 93 votes were polled by people belonging to the other category.

A total of 1,32,10,206 voters were entitled to exercise their franchise in electing councillors for the 272 wards falling under the three corporations - NDMC (104), SDMC (104) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (64).

In 2012, MCD elections, the turnout was 53.43 per cent, according to records of the Delhi State Election Commission.

"This year, north Delhi (54.08) and east Delhi (56.08) have registered a higher voting percentage in their respective areas, but areas in south Delhi (51.59) have witnessed a slight fall, compared to last polls.

"In 2012, areas in NDMC and EDMC had registered 53.37 per cent and 55.56 per cent voter turnout respectively, while areas in SDMC had recorded 52.14 per cent," a senior official said.

However, in terms of the total votes polled this year, South Delhi recorded a maximum, with 26,87,685 votes, followed by North Delhi at 26,80,011 and East Delhi polled 17,72,298 votes.

North Delhi Municipal Corporation's Bakhtawarpur ward recorded the highest voter turnout at over 68 per cent, while South Delhi's Lado Sarai registered the lowest turnout at 39 per cent in Sunday's polls.

In the 2012 polls, Bakhtawarpur ward had polled the highest in north Delhi (69.33 per cent), while Raghuver Vihar in south Delhi polled 80.99 per cent, the highest across the wards in the three corporations, while Mandawali in East Delhi saw the lowest at 48.15 per cent across the 272 wards.