Public is in mood for change: EAM after casting his vote for Delhi polls

I have been an early voter...I think the public is in a mood for change, EAM Jaishankar said

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his wife, Kyoko Jaishankar, cast their vote at a polling booth in Delhi's NDMC School of Science and Humanities, Tughlaq Crescent for the Delhi assembly polls.

After casting his vote, Jaishankar said, "I have been an early voter...I think the public is in a mood for change."

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, along with his wife Lakshmi Puri, also cast their vote for the Delhi assembly election at Mount Carmel School in Anand Niketan.

After casting his vote in the Assembly poll, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri asked Delhi residents to restore Delhi, which, according to him, has been devastated by 'AAP-da' (AAP) in the last so many years.

Polling for 70 assembly seats began on Wednesday morning in Delhi, as voters cast their ballots for the 8th Assembly amid tight security.

Voting commenced at 7.00 am and will continue till 6.00 pm, officials said.

Hotly contested constituencies include New Delhi, Jangpura, Kalkaji, Okhla, Mustafabad, Bijwasan, Kasturba Nagar, Greater Kailash, and Patparganj, among others.

AAP, which currently holds more than 60 seats in the 70-seat assembly, seeks re-election based on its previous terms' achievements.

The New Delhi seat sees a high-profile three-way contest with former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal (AAP), BJP's Parvesh Verma, and Congress's Sandeep Dikshit (son of former CM Sheila Dikshit). Jangpura sees a contest between AAP's Manish Sisodia, Congress's Farhad Suri, and BJP's Tarvinder Singh Marwah.

A total of 699 candidates is in the electoral fray on the 70 assembly constituency seats of the national capital.

Delhi has 1,561,400 registered voters, including 837,617 males, 723,656 females, and 1,267 third-gender voters. The electorate also includes 239,905 first-time voters aged 18-19, 109,368 elderly voters aged 85 and above, and 79,885 persons with disabilities.