Gandhis cast vote; Arvind Kejriwal claims Congress has accepted its defeat
New Delhi: Vice President Hamid Ansari, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal were among the early voters in the seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats which recorded an impressive 10 per cent turn out in the first two hours on Thursday.
"10.2 per cent of the electorate have cast their votes till 9 AM. The polling has so far been peaceful and there are no reports of any untoward incident," a top official in the
Delhi Election Commission said.
The Lok Sabha elections here are seen as test of Aam Aadmi Party's perceived erosion of support base, BJP's claim of having a 'Modi wave' besides assertion by Congress that it was regaining lost ground after suffering massive defeat in assembly polls in December.
Union Minister Kapil Sibal, Delhi BJP Chief Harsh Vardhan, Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken, Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev were also among the early voters.
Sonia, accompanied by Maken and Delhi Congress Chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, came to the polling station at Nirman Bhavan in Central Delhi at around 9:30 AM and went straight inside the booth to vote as there was no queue.
She is a voter in the New Delhi constituency from where Maken is contesting to retain the seat for the third consecutive term.
Talking to reporters Maken, who is contesting from prestigious New Delhi constituency, exuded confidence of regaining support of the Congress votebank, which he said had gone to AAP in the assembly polls four months back.
"People who voted for Arvind Kejriwal were traditional Congress voters who will vote for us this time. We will win all seven seats. There is no Modi wave," Maken told reporters.
Clad in a while kurta-pyjama, Rahul cast his vote at booth number 88 at Aurangazeb Lane at 10:20 AM. He was also accompanied by Maken and Lovely. As there was no queue, Rahul also went straight inside the booth to cast his vote.
After casting his vote at a polling booth near his residence in Tilak Lane, Kejriwal said Congress has already accepted its defeat while BJP's Modi was thinking that he had become the Prime Minister.
"One has already accepted his defeat and the other thinks he has already won and crowned himself the Prime Minister. Now, it is the people who will decide who forms the government. We are confident of winning all the seven seats," the former Chief Minister said.
Kejriwal, accompanied by his mother, father and wife, also appealed to people to cast their vote. As he reached the polling station, two cars collided head-on while another hit a divider outside the polling booth at the College of Arts apparently because the drivers were looking at Kejriwal.
"We have cast our votes and now everything is in God's hands," said Kejriwal's father Govind Ram. His mother Geeta Devi said "I have voted for change and we are waiting for May 16."
The prominent contenders in the fray include Union Ministers Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath, Delhi BJP Chief Harsh Vardhan, Congress' Maken, journalist-turned-politician Ashutosh, Sandeep Dikshit, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Rajmohan Gandhi, and BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi.
There were some reports of malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVM) in some parts of outer Delhi the city but they were rectified, election officials said.
Voting began at 7 AM and will continue till 6 PM. The Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements as it deployed nearly 50,000 security personnel, apart from 161 flying squads of police and video surveillance teams.
Election Commission said it has done away with provision of voter cards and voter slips being mandatory to cast vote. Polling is being held in 11,763 polling stations out of which 327 have been declared critical and 90 hyper-critical.
A total of 1.27 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise, which include over 3.37 lakh first time voters. 150 candidates are in the fray. There are 29 contenders from New Delhi constituency, the highest for any seat, while the lowest of 14 is in North West seat.
