Poor turnout in Rajouri Garden by-election till 3PM

New Delhi: The Assembly bypoll in the Rajouri Garden constituency recorded poor turnout of 35 per cent till 3 PM on Sunday with polling stations across the west Delhi seat remaining largely desolate.

First few hours saw few turn up with only around 11.02 per cent of the nearly 1.6 lakh electorate trooping out to exercise their franchise till 11 AM.

Chief Electoral Officer Chandra Bhushan Kumar told PTI that Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines, which are being used across the 166 polling stations of the constituency, had to be changed in around 30 places.

"The polling has so far been peaceful and there were no reports of any untoward incident," he said.

He also dismissed the AAP's claim that the election office has been "lax" in replacing faulty machines in few centres.

Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken, who was among the early voters, said the bypoll was a referendum on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's two-year rule and claimed his party candidate Meenakshi Chandela will clinch the seat.

BJP-SAD combine candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa said turnout usually remains low during bypolls.

"It is not a matter of concern. The AAP will be relegated to the fourth spot. Congress will be the runner-up. There is not an iota of doubt that BJP-SAD combine will bag the seat," he said.

AAP candidate Harjeet Singh blamed "confusion" over poll date for the low turnout.

However, he exuded confidence about pulling off a victory, saying that people understand that having an MLA from the ruling party was essential for the area's holistic development.

The seat fell vacant early this year after AAP's Jarnail Singh quit as MLA to contest Punjab Assembly poll against SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal, only to lose and considerably dent AAP's chances of holding on to the seat.