Election Body's action allowed over 1,000 Delhi voters to exercise their franchise. Here's what happened

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, Mr 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," Mr 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.

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Elections were held in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10 seats in Haryana, eight constituencies each in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, four in Jharkhand and seven seats in Delhi where votes were cast by a number of public figures, including President Ram Nath Kovind, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

With Sunday's polling, votes have already been cast in nearly 89 per cent of the 543 constituencies, while the last phase of voting will take place on May 19 for the remaining 59 seats. 

The Election Commission (EC) said 63.48 percent turnout was recorded across the states and Delhi, with West Bengal recording over 80 percent polling and Delhi registering just 60 per cent. In 2014, it was 63.37 percent.

The EC said the polling percentage was recorded at 9 pm.The figure is provisional and it may rise. Over 10.17 crore people were eligible to decide the fate of 979 candidates.

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