Delhi: MCD elections witnessed sluggish voting this time; Voting slowest in East Delhi

New Delhi: MCD elections in Delhi this time witnessed sluggish voting for all the three municipal corporations on Sunday. Polling for municipal corporations in East, North and South Delhi commenced at 8 AM for 270 wards and voting was the slowest in East Delhi as compared to North and South Delhi. By 10 am across the city, only 1.16 per cent of the total 1.33 crore voters casted their votes and 20% voting reported till 12 noon. 73,051 votes out of 49.55 lakh were polled with the voting percentage being 1.47, in North Delhi and in South Delhi, out of 52,09,933, 57,330 votes were polled which was 1.1 per cent of the total. However, in East Delhi, voting was the slowest where out of a total of 31,60,325, only 24,759 votes were polled and the voting the percentage was 0.78. Polling in two MCD wards postponed due to death of candidates The elections to two municipal wards— Sarai Peepal Kalan (North MCD) and Maujpur (East MCD)— have been postponed following the deaths of candidates, incidentally both from the Samajwadi Party. Delhi L-G Anil Baijal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia were among the early voters. In these elections, there is a lot at stake for three main contenders BJP, AAP and Congress. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, accompanied by his parents, wife and daughter, reached a polling booth in North Delhi's Civil Lines area to cast vote. The police have declared 3,284 as sensitive and 1,464 as hyper-sensitive. There are in total 13,022 polling stations and there are over 1.1 lakh first-time voters. NOTA available For the first time in the MCD elections, None Of The Above (NOTA) option has been made available. Over 56,000 Delhi Police and paramilitary personnel are deployed at the polling booths, while an additional 20,000 home guards have been deployed to ensure law and order in the city on the election day. The results of the MCD elections will be out on April 26.