Date:01/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/01/stories/2008120153950400.htm

New Delhi

Mangolpuri records highest turnout at 65 per cent

Staff Reporter

A considerable increase in polling in comparison with 53 per cent in the last Delhi Assembly elections

Initial estimates had put the turnout at over 60 per cent on Saturday
Turnout in the MCD elections held last year was an abysmal 43.01 per cent

NEW DELHI: Nearly 58 per cent of the over 10 million electorate cast their votes in the elections to 69 segments of the 70-member Delhi Assembly on Saturday, a considerable increase in turnout compared with 53 per cent in the last Assembly elections held five years ago.

Initial estimates had put the turnout at over 60 per cent, but the final picture emerged on Sunday as polling had been extended beyond the 5 p.m. deadline in some areas because of malfunctioning of the some electronic voting machines.

Of the total electorate of 1,05,77,601, as many as 61,05,862 voters cast their votes, registering a healthy 57.72 per cent turnout. The turnout in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections held last year was an abysmal 43.01 per cent.

Mangolpuri, the most “high profile” constituency in the North West parliamentary constituency where Delhi Development Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan is pitted against Yogesh Attray of the Bharatiya Janata Party, recorded the highest turnout at 64.88 per cent. The Jat-dominated Mehruali seat, where Health Minister Yoganand Shastri is engaged in a triangular fight with Congress rebel Satbir Singh and Sher Singh Dagar of the BJP, saw the lowest turnout at 45.91 per cent.

Besides, heavy turnouts were recorded in Uttam Nagar (63.96), Tri Nagar (63.69), Rithala (63.65), Gandhi Nagar (63.43), Dwarka (62.21) and Rajouri Garden (62.15). Gandhi Nagar witnesses a straight fight between Delhi Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely and his arch-rival Kalpana Jain of the BJP.

Okhla, where the election was fought against the backdrop of the Batla House encounter, recorded a voter turnout of 49.41 per cent. Here sitting MLA and former Delhi Transport Minister Parvez Hashmi faces local Gujjar leader Surendra Bidhuri of the BJP.

The New Delhi assembly constituency, where Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is being challenged by BJP MLA Vijay Jolly, recorded 55.93 per cent voting, while BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate V. K. Malhotras’s Greater Kailash seat witnessed 54.50 per cent turnout.

The voting percentage in the nine Delhi districts is as follows South-West (60.13), North-East (59.36), East (59.10), North (58.50), Central (58.29), West (58.07), North-West (57.77), South (54.03), and New Delhi (53.96). The results of the polls would be announced on December 8. Election in Rajendra Nagar had to be postponed due to the death of sitting MLA and BJP candidate Puran Chand Yogi and will now be held on December 13. The result would be announced on December 15.