New Delhi, Feb 5 (UNI) Signalling pick-up in the voting post lunch hours, the turnout for the Delhi Assembly polls reached 46.55 percent till 3 PM on Wednesday.
As per the Voter Turnout App of the Election Commission of India (ECI), 46.55 pecent votes were cast eight hours into polling which began at 7 am for the 70-seat Assembly of the Union Territory.
The turnout was the highest in North East district at 52.73% followed by Shahadra at 49.58%. South West district booths saw the footfall of 48.32% of the electorate.
Central, East and New Delhi districts recorded 43.45%, 47.09% and 43.10% respectively
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Among the constituencies, Karol Bagh has recorded the lowest turnout of 39.05 percent, while Mustafabad logged the highest turnout of 56.12 percent.
President Droupadi Murmu, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, and Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, BJP Delhi unit President Virendra Sachdeva, Chief Minister Atishi and her predecessor Arvind Kejriwal were among those who have pressed the EVM buttons.
Former Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have also cast their votes.
Election Commissioner Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev and Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora also exercised their democratic choice.
Voting will continue till 6 pm across 13,766 polling stations, with the around 1.56 crore electorate - 83.76 lakh men, 72.36 lakh women, and 1,267 individuals from the third gender.- eligible to choose their representatives from a pool of 699 contenders.
More than 30,000 police personnel and 220 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed across Delhi to ensure a fair and smooth voting process.
There is a triangular contest with all the three major players - BJP, AAP and Congress claiming victory.
The counting will take place on February 8.
New Delhi being the national capital, the assembly election results are likely to have an impact elsewhere. UNI NK SSP