New Delhi: Polling for 70 assembly seats in Delhi has begun amid tight security. Voting will continue till 6 pm across 12,177 polling stations.
Extensive security arrangements have been put in place to ensure free and fair conduct of polling.
Just minutes before the voting started, unidentified miscreants attacked the office of BJP's Matiala candidate Rajesh Gehlot. The party has accused the Aam Aadmi Party of this attack.
In another incident, car of BJP candidate from Gonda constituency Sahib Singh Chauhan was stoned outside his house.
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A total of 673 candidates are in the fray for the 70-member House, which is witnessing its second election in over a year following the resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Sixty-three contestants are women. Burari constituency in north Delhi has the highest number of candidates. Ambedkar Nagar in the south has the least: four.
The 2013 election saw a record polling at over 66 percent. The number of candidates then was 810.
Over 13.3 million voters are eligible to vote. Some 5.9 million of them are females. There are over 2.27 lakh first-time voters. While 9,369 voters are homeless, 311 are over 100 years old.
Out of 12,177 polling stations, 741 polling locations have been identified as critical polling premises, of which 191 are highly critical.
Approximately 95,000 government employees have been deployed on election duty.
The Election Commission has not disclosed the exact number of police personnel it has deployed this time. A senior official said that security during polling would be much higher compared to previous elections. In previous election, 64,000 police personnel were deputed on poll duty.
Opinion polls have come out with varying predictions of who will be the winner. The latest India TV-CVoter opinion poll, conducted in the last week of January, has predicted that the BJP may touch the magical figure by winning 36 seats. According to the survey, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be the second largest party with 31 seats. The Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 years at a stretch, may find its tally reduced from eight last time to merely two this time, with 'Others' which include small parties and independents, winning the sole remaining seat.
The results will be declared February 10.
