Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor has appealed to voters of the Rajinder Nagar constituency here to turn out in large numbers as the bypoll to the crucial assembly seat got underway Thursday morning. A total of 1,64,698 electors are eligible to cast vote in this constituency, including 1,899 voters in the 18-19 age group.
“Voting began at 7 am under tight security arrangements for the Rajinder Nagar bypoll. Kapoor in a video message has appealed to voters to exercise their franchise and turn out in large numbers,” Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh told PTI.
The video was posted on the New Delhi district Facebook page, shortly before the polling began.
Kapoor has been chosen as a district icon by poll authorities and her images have been used on posters and social media to reach out to a larger number of voters, especially the youth in the Rajinder Nagar assembly area. “I appeal to all the voters in Rajinder Nagar assembly constituency to come out with their family members and friends and vote in the June 23 bypoll,” she said in her message.
Of the total number of eligible voters for the bypoll, 92,221 are male, 72,473 female, and four belong to the third gender. The number of eligible voters in the Rajinder Nagar assembly seat for the 2022 bypoll is less than the count of electors in this assembly seat during the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, as death and migration of voters have been factored in.
The counting of votes will take place on June 26, and poll authorities here are hopeful that the turnout in this bypoll will exceed the voting percentage recorded in the 2020 election. In the 2020 polls, the voter turnout in Rajinder Nagar was 58.27 percent — 58.09 percent male voters and 58.5 percent female voters.
Fourteen candidates are in the fray, with water shortage and the city government’s liquor policy among the key election issues.
In addition to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Congress candidates, there are three others from unrecognized parties and eight Independent nominees.
[With Inputs from PTI]
