Delhi Polls: AAP Expresses Concern Over Delay in Confirmation of Final Voter Turnout

Earlier, the party’s leader Sanjay Singh claimed that EVMs were being tampered.

New Delhi: Even as BJP leaders claim that a late surge in voter turnout has increased their tally, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has expressed concern about the possibility of tampering, with the Election Commission yet to give a final turnout figure for Saturday’s voting for Delhi assembly elections.

On Saturday, there was a late surge in voting, which doubled the turnout from 30% at 3 pm to the eventual 61% as reported initially by the Election Commission.

BJP leaders had asserted that contrary to most exit polls which predicted an easy win for AAP, the sharp increase in voter turnout would be to their advantage.

While an “estimated” voter turnout of 61.85% was announced on Saturday night, no final tally has been given by the Election Commission as of 5:30 pm on Sunday.

Senior AAP party leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal stated that the delay was “shocking”.


According to Election Commission sources, the final tally for all the 70 assembly constituencies is likely to be announced shortly.

Earlier, AAP had also expressed concern that Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were being tampered.

Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh had tweeted a video on Saturday night, which he claimed was of an “official was caught with an EVM by people at Saraswati Vidya Niketan School in Babarpur assembly constituency”.


He also posted a video which apparently showed people getting down from a DTC bus, with the following text in hindi, “The EC should also probe where these EVMs are being taken. There are no centres nearby”.


Kejriwal held a meeting with senior leaders at his residence regarding providing the EVMs. It has been reported that the party has decided to depute workers at places where EVMs are being stored, especially during the night. It was attended by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, poll strategist Prashant Kishor, and leaders Sanjay Singh and Gopal Rai.

After the meeting, Sanjay Singh told ANI that EVMs which should have been taken directly to the strong room after being sealed were still in possession of some officers. “It is an incident of Babarpur. A similar incident is being reported from Vishwas Nagar,” he said.


According to NDTV, the Election Commission denied any wrongdoing. “All EVMs that were used for the polls have been accounted for. EVMs have been stored safely with police protection in centres and party agents are also allowed to stay outside the centre if they wish,” an official told the television channel.

Nearly all exit polls predicted that AAP would comfortably cross the majority mark of 36 in the 70-member house and form the government and return to power.

But since the election ended on Saturday, AAP has been on its toes regarding the EVMs. Late in the evening, the party claimed that it received information that officials were trying to take away EVMs in an “unauthorised manner“.

However, BJP’s Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari dismissed the exit poll results and said that his party will win 48 seats. “All these exit polls will fail. Please save this tweet from me. The BJP will form government in the city with 48 seats. Please do not look for excuses and blame the EVMs,” he tweeted.

Counting of votes and announcement of results will take place on Tuesday, February 11.