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Triangular fight in Delhi made 68 per cent Delhiites voted with young voters  taking interest on Wednesday in the fiercely fought assembly polls, considered the litmus test for Congress ahead of the next year’s Lok Sabha elections, as arch rival BJP and debutant Aam Aadmi Party made it an interesting  contest.
The high-pitched battle that saw BJP aggressively campaigning to stop Congress from getting a fourth consecutive term and greenhorn AAP, trying to corner both traditional political parties on corruption issue, culminated with nearly 80 lakh out of the 1.19 crore voters deciding the fate of 810 candidates.
Congress was seeking another term under Sheila Dikshit, BJP and AAP were led by their chief ministerial candidates Harsh Vardhan and bureaucrat-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal respectively for the 70-member assembly.
“The turnout has been around 68 per cent. The election was incident free,” Delhi’s Chief Electoral officer Vijay Dev said addressing a press conference in the evening. Nearly 70,000 people were standing in queue around 6 PM, he said.
Today’s turnout was a record in all elections in Delhi including assembly and Lok Sabha polls in last two decades. In 2008 assembly polls, the overall voting percentage was 57.58 while in 2003, it was 53.42 per cent.
Vice President Hamid Ansari, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Dikshit, Kejriwal and Vardhan were among the early voters.
Facing the toughest battle of her political career, Dikshit said she has kept her “fingers crossed” on the outcome of the election. Price rise and anti-incumbency are seen as major issues that may trouble Congress which is in power in the city for the past 15 years.
After casting her vote, Sonia exuded confidence of her party’s fourth straight victory in the Delhi polls. “We will win,” she said with a smile after casting her vote at Nirman Bhavan polling booth.
Vice President Hamid Ansari, Aam Admi Party Chief Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev were among the first few to cast their votes in the Delhi Assembly election today.
Ansari reached New Delhi constituency’s polling booth no 8586 at Nirman Bhavan at around 8:10 AM in He was among the first few citizens to vote at the booth, where other high-profile voters like Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit are to also cast their ballot.
Dikshit, Kejriwal and former city BJP chief Vijendra Gupta are among candidates in fray from the New Delhi constituency.
Priyanka Gandhi accompanied by her husband Robert Vadra and Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev were also among the early voters. When asked about the prospects of Congress, Sonia said with a smile, “We will win”.
Sonia came with Dikshit and stood in the queue for a little while before being escorted inside the poll booth at the Nirman Bhavan. Clad in a while kurta-pyjama and a half-jacket, Rahul queued up for around 32 minutes before his turn came at booth number 88 at Aurangazeb Lane in New Delhi constituency from where the Chief Minister is contesting.
Exuding confidence over Congress’ victory, Rahul said that Dikshit has “done a lot of good work in Delhi. I think she will do well.” Dikshit struck a cautious note when asked about the possible poll outcome, saying she has kept her “fingers crossed”. “I will keep my fingers crossed,” she said.
There were some reports of malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVM) in some parts of the city but they were rectified, election officials said. The EVM at polling booth in Aurangazeb Lane, where Rahul cast his vote, malfunctioned when polling began.
In Jungpura, Badli and Krishna Nagar constituencies, some voters complained that their names have been struck from the electoral rolls and they could not vote.