Delhi Assembly elections: 1.72 lakh first time voters in 2015

New Delhi, Jan 6: Around 1.72 lakh first time voters in the age group of 18 to 19 will be able to exercise their franchise in the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls.

As per the electoral roll published on Monday, the total number of voters in the city have been estimated at 1,30,85,251 out which 72,60,633 are men and 58,24,618 are women voters.

The young voters population stands at 1.31 percent of the total electors population, said Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer Chandra Bhushan Kumar.

"During the period of special summary revision-2015, total 1,59,854 new voters were added after publication of Draft Roll on October 15, 2014," Kumar said. The number of total eligible voters in 2013 assembly polls was 1.19 crore.

Kumar said voting will take place in 11,763 polling booths in 2527 locations. He said the Election Commission will continue updating the electoral roll till 10 days before the last date of filing the nominations for the assembly polls though the final electoral roll has been published.

Giving details about steps to encourage eligible youngsters to exercise their franchise, Dev said the Commission has appointed one "ambassador" each in 863 educational institutions to ensure all students get their names enrolled in voters' list.

In an attempt to increase the voter registration and create awareness specifically amongst the youth in the upcoming assembly elections, Delhi's Chief Electoral office will target busy metro stations and hold nukkad nataks (street plays) there.

Voting will take place in 11,763 polling booths in 2527 locations

Kumar said that Matiala has the largest electorate with 339686 people registered while Chandni Chowk has the smallest electorate with 112739 people. Shakur Basti has the highest gender ratio of 938 while Tughalakabad has the lowest gender ratio of 638.

"We will hold nukkad nataks in Metro stations having high foot-fall like Rajeev Chowk, Kashmiri Gate and New Delhi Railway station during which we will encourage them to check their names in the electoral roll, and if they have not applied, they will be asked to apply for registration," said Kumar.

The Commission will also start the SVEEP activities from tomorrow as a part of which awareness campaigns for verifying the name in voter list and to enroll, if left out, through print and electronic media will be launched in coming week.

Special Camps for enrolment will be organized all over Delhi at all 11,763 polling stations (2527 polling station buildings) on Jan 11 and opportunity will be provided to people to check their names in the electoral roll and to submit fresh applications.

Special camps will be held for enrolment of residents of night shelters. As per final roll, EP ratio in 35 assemblies is more than state average that is 70.02 and in 35 assemblies it is less than state average.

Assembly constituency with highest EP ratio is Jungpura (83.89) and the assembly Constituency with lowest EP Ratio is New Delhi at 47.45. Voter turnout in 2013 Delhi Assembly Election was 65.6 percent and in Lok Sabha Election-2014, it was 65.07 percent.

PTI