New Delhi, Feb 5 (UNI) Marked by brisk voting in the afternoon hours, the turnout for the Delhi Assembly polls rose to around 57.70 percent till 5 PM on Wednesday.
As per the Voter Turnout App of the Election Commission of India (ECI), 57.70 percent of the electorate turned up in the booths, with an hour remaining for the scheduled close of the polls which began at 7 am for the 70-seat Assembly of the Union Territory.
The turnout was the highest in North East district at 63.83% followed by Shahadra at 61.35% as of 5 PM. East district clocked a polling figure of 58.98%.
Central Delhi, South West and New Delhi districts recorded 55.24%, 58 .86% and 54.37% voter turnout respectively.
Among the constituencies, Karol Bagh recorded the lowest turnout of 47.40 percent, while Mustafabad logged the highest turnout of 66.68 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 JA SSP