NOTA introduced for the first time in MCD elections
For the first time in Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, the None Of The Above (NOTA) option was made available during polling which took place on Sunday. While the total number of voters in the Delhi civic polls stood at more than 1.32 crore, the voter turnout was recorded low at 54%.
Delhi residents will vote in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections today. The result of the poll is bound to have an impact beyond the borders of the capital.With AAP, Congress and BJP in the fray for the crucial polls, the national capital witnessed an aggressive campaign.The election will determine if Arvind Kejriwal's AAP will retain power in Delhi. AAP made inroads in the 2015 Assembly polls by winning 67 seats out of 70.The BJP, meanwhile, has fielded new candidates across the 267 wards. Earlier this week, the party had expelled one of its candidate from Narela for allegedly involving sacked AAP minister Sandeep Kumar in the campaign.The Congress, which finished second in the Rajouri Garden bypoll, is hoping for a resurgence and banked on its big guns during campaigns to shore up its fortune, despite unabated infighting. It has fielded 271 candidates.GOING STRONG DESPITE LOSSESThe AAP, which suffered a humiliating defeat in the recent bypolls and still smarting under its poor performance in Punjab and Goa polls, has refused to acknowledge the results as a "trailer of MCD polls".While the BJP's move to field new candidates was seen as a strategy to counter anti-incumbency, the party claims it was to "give opportunity to the next generation".The BJP is betting big on the contest. Addressing booth-level workers during campaigning, party chief Amit Shah had said a favourable verdict in the MCD polls could be a stepping stone to victory in the next Assembly elections in the city.The erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was trifurcated in 2012 into North, South and East Municipal Corporations. While NDMC and SDMC have 104 wards each, EDMC has 64.There are 1,004 candidates vying for seats in the NDMC area, 985 in SDMC's and 548 in EDMC's. The BSP and the JD(U) have fielded 211 and 95 candidates while the SP has entered the fray with 28. The SP today said it has 30 candidates altogether but two of them have died.TUSSLE OVER EVM CONTINUESThe Yogendra Yadav-led Swaraj India is also in the fray. The run-up to the polls have also been dominated by allegations of tampered EVMs - a charge made by Kejriwal, but rejected by the Election Commission.The Generation-1 electronic voting machines (EVMs) are to be used for the MCD elections, which the Commission has described as "foolproof". The State Election Commission is gearing up to carry out the electoral exercise that will be spread over 13,000 booths spanning 272 wards.Over 1.3 crore people are eligible to vote in the polls and of them more than 1.1 lakh are first-time voters. Out of the 13,022 polling stations, police authorities have declared 3,284 as sensitive and 1,464 as hypersensitive.NOTA INTRODUCED FOR THE FIRST TIMEFor the first time in MCD elections, the None Of The Above (NOTA) option will be available. The total number of voters in the civic polls stands at 1,32,10,206 which include 73,15,915 men, 58,93,418 women and 793 voters in the other category.This would be the first civic poll after the latest delimitation which has redrawn the civic wards. As per the new delimitation exercise, based on the 2011 Census, each ward now has an average of 60,000 people with an estimated 40,000 voters.Delhi has 70 Assembly seats and before the delimitation, every constituency had four wards, but, now it ranges from 3- 7.(Inputs from PTI)ALSO READ | MCD election: Yogendra Yadav calls Arvind Kejriwal betrayer of Delhi, seeks resignation after civic polls