New Delhi: In a record turnout, around 67 per cent of the electorate voted on Wednesday in the fiercely fought Delhi assembly polls billed as a litmus test for ruling Congress ahead of upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the first-ever triangular contest in which traditional rival BJP and debutant Aam Aadmi were in the fray.
In an unprecedented exercise, voting went on till 9.30 PM -four-and-a-half hours past the 5 PM voting deadline-when the last ballot was cast by waiting voters in a booth in Okhla Assembly segment.
The stunning voter turnout that shattered the previous highest of 61.75 per cent in the first elections to the state Assembly in 1993 saw voting hours being extended in several polling booths beyond the closing time of 5 PM as around 1.7 lakh voters were still waiting in winding queues. "The turnout has been around 66 per cent. The election was incident free," Delhi's Chief Electoral officer Vijay Dev told a press conference, an hour past the voting deadline.
"The young have broken all stereotypes. They want to vote," he added. Counting of votes will be taken up on Sunday. Election Commission officials estimated that the turnout could be around 67 per cent in the final tally.
The high-decibel battle that saw BJP pull all stops to halt Congress from getting a fourth consecutive term and greenhorn AAP, trying to corner the two mainstream parties on corruption issue, ended on a historic high with an estimated 80 lakh out of the 1.19 crore eligible voters sealing the fate of 810 candidates.
While Congress was seeking another term under Sheila Dikshit, BJP and AAP were led by their chief ministerial candidates Harsh Vardhan and bureaucrat-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal respectively for the 70-member assembly.
Vice President Hamid Ansari, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Dikshit, Kejriwal and Vardhan
were among the early voters.
Facing the toughest battle of her political career, Dikshit said she is keeping her "fingers crossed". Price rise and anti-incumbency are seen as major issues that could pose a threat to Congress which is in power in the city for the past 15 years.
After casting her vote, Sonia exuded confidence of her party's fourth straight victory in the Delhi polls. "We will win," she said with a smile after casting her vote at Nirman Bhavan polling booth.
Rahul said Dikshit has "done a lot of good work in Delhi. I think she will do well." Vardhan said he is "100 per cent
confident" of BJP regaining power. There were reports of malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in some parts of the city but they were rectified, election officials said. The EVM at polling booth in Aurangazeb Lane, where Rahul cast his vote, malfunctioned when polling began. "We replaced a total of 112 EVMs," said an EC official.
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