Battle for Delhi: Voting begins amid tight security

polling for 70-member Delhi Assembly got underway on Saturday morning, an election that saw ruling AAP, opposition BJP and Congress engd in a bitterly fought high-octane campaign.

Over 1.47 crore people are eligible to exercise ir franchise in polls that will decide fate of 672 candidates.
polling began at 8 am and will end at 6 pm, an official said.

Security forces kept a tight watch across 70 constituencies, with police and paramilitary personnel keeping an "extra vigil" in sensitive areas like Shaheen Bagh, Jamia Nagar and Seelampuri.

re are over 81 lakh male voters, 66.80 lakh female voters, and 869 third- voters, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ranbir Singh has said.

Around 2.33 lakh voters are in group of 18-19, 2.04 lakh voters are senior citizens d 80, while re are 11,608 service voters, according to officials.

Prominent candidates in fray include Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, Atishi and Raghav Chha of AAP; four former mayors -- Az Singh, Yo Chandolia, Ravinder Gupta and Khushi Ram -- of BJP; and Shivani Chopra, daughter of Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra.

re are 13,750 polling booths, besides one auxiliary booth, located at 2,689 locations across Delhi.

"As far as critical polling stations are concerned, re are 516 locations and 3,704 booths in that category," Singh said.

Besides police security, polling stations falling in "critical category" have got paramilitary cover. Activities at such stations are being monitored through webcasting, officials said.

All five polling stations in Shaheen Bagh, epicentre of massive protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act, are under critical category.

Aam Ami Party is hoping to repeat its stellar performance of last assembly polls when it won 67 of 70 seats. Bharatiya Janata Party, which bagged all seven seats in Delhi in 2019 Lok Sabha poll, is aiming to dislodge AAP, while Congress is seeking to better its performance than last time when it drew a blank in assembly polls.

AAP h got 54.3 per cent votes in 2015 polls, while BJP secured 32 per cent and Congress bagged just 9.6 per cent. Counting of votes will take place on Tuesday.

(Im source - PTI)