Election Commission action allows over 1,000 voters in Delhi to exercise their franchise

More than a thousand voters in Delhi's Kasturba Nagar would have lost their right to exercise their franchise had the Election Commission gone ahead with a proposal to close down a polling booth in the area.

According to Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh, the government accommodations in Kasturba Nagar, which comes under the New Delhi parliamentary constituency, were redeveloped and residents of the area were shifted to other areas.

This necessitated the need for the Delhi CEO to write to the Election Commission about the polling station in that area not being needed anymore, Singh said.

"We had sent a proposal to the EC saying polling station number 1 under which that area fell is not needed. The EC asked us to issue a public notice saying if voters there were willing to vote, they will facilitate it," Singh said.

The Delhi CEO got the polling done and of 1079 registered voters from the locality, 300 turned up till 1 pm, officials said.

Delhi recorded 60.21 per cent voter turnout till 6 pm on Sunday.