Bawana bypoll: 17.46 pc voting till 11 am

New Delhi, Aug 23 (PTI) Over 17 per cent of the electorate had exercised their franchise in the first three hours of polling in the Bawana assembly by-election, in which the Congress, BJP and AAP are locked in a triangular contest, officials said today. Voting began at 8 am for the by-election, being seen as a battle of prestige by the three parties jostling for political dominance over the city. “The polling percentage at 11 am stands at 17.46,” Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Delhi, Chandra Bhushan Kumar said. “There were some EVM issues in a couple of booths in the morning, but they were all fixed. Voting is going smoothly,” a senior polling official added. EVMs with paper trail machines, the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), are being used in all the 379 polling stations. Over 2.94 lakh electors are eligible to exercise their franchise in the by-election for the reserved assembly seat that falls in north-west Delhi area. Eight candidates are in the fray for the bypoll, necessitated due to AAP MLA Ved Parkash quitting the assembly to rejoin the BJP in March ahead of the municipal elections. Counting will take place on August 28. All three major parties are eyeing a victory in the bypoll, being seen as a barometer of their political influence. The number of male, female and third gender electors are 1,64,114, 1,30,143, and 25, respectively. The average number of voters per polling station stands at 776. Out of 379 polling stations in the constituency, 311 have less than 1,000 registered electors, while 68 have more than 1,000 registered electors, officials said. The overall polling percentage for Delhi in the assembly elections in 2013 was 65.63 per cent; in 2015, it was 67.12 per cent. The corresponding polling percentage in Bawana constituency was 61.14 and 61.83 per cent respectively. PTI