Prateeksha Thakur
New Delhi, 6th Feb 2025
The voting for Delhi’s 70-member assembly concluded on Wednesday, sealing the fate of three major political players and 699 candidates. Over 60.42% of the 1.56 crore eligible voters cast their ballots, according to data updated at 11:30 PM.
This marks the lowest voter turnout since 2008 when only 57.8% of the electorate participated. In comparison, the 2013 elections saw a turnout of 66%, while the 2015 elections recorded a historic high of 67.5%. However, voter participation began to decline in 2020, falling to 62.8%. This year’s turnout is just 1.8 percentage points higher than the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which recorded 58.6% voting during the peak of summer in May.
The Election Commission (EC) has stated that the voter turnout figures remain provisional and will be finalized in the coming days.
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Among the constituencies, Seelampur recorded the highest turnout at 68.7%, followed by Seemapuri, a reserved constituency, at 65.3%. On the other hand, Mehrauli saw the lowest voter participation at 53%, followed closely by Model Town at 53.4%.
The polling process began at 7 AM, with an initial turnout of 8.1% recorded in the first two hours. By 11 AM, the voter participation had reached 20%, rising to 33.3% at 1 PM and 46.5% at 3 PM. According to the ECI’s voter turnout mobile app, by 5 PM, the turnout stood at 57.7% with one more hour left before polling closed.
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Several key candidates contested this election. From AAP, prominent names included Chief Minister Atishi, party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, and ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj, Imran Hussain, Mukesh Ahlawat, and Raghuvinder Shokeen. BJP fielded Vijender Gupta, former MPs Ramesh Bidhuri and Parvesh Verma. Congress had Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav, senior leaders Sandeep Dikshit and Haroon Yusuf, along with former ministers Kailash Gahlot, Raaj Kumar Anand, Arvinder Singh Lovely, and Rajkumar Chauhan.
NI Bureau
