New Delhi, May 25: The who’s who of the national capital including our First Citizen President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar, besides Congress’ former chiefs the mother and son duo of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were among 8.94 percent of 1.52 crore voters who voted till 9 am across all seven Lok Sabha constituencies here.

Voters have been queuing up outside polling booths since before 7 am. Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi cast their votes at Nirman Bhawan polling station. This is the first time when Congress leaders are voting for Aam Aadmi Party and vice versa.

Speaking to media after voting, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on the new trend set by the INDIA bloc said: “We have kept all our issues and grievances aside and we are voting for our Constitution and democracy and I am proud of it.”

AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “On June 4 the results will come and you have been on field and I am also on field and we all know what is the situation. And what ever is the situation on the field the same has to be visible.”

Voters across all age groups and professions were seen coming out in large number to cast their votes as Chandni Chowk registered 7.83 per cent turnout in first two hours, East Delhi (8.82), New Delhi (7.04), North East Delhi (10.15), North West Delhi (8.99), South Delhi (8.88) and West Delhi recorded 9.72 per cent voting.

Some 82 lakh men, 69 lakh women and 1,228 of the third gender voters were polling across 13,637 polling stations spread across the city. A total of 70 pink polling stations have also been set up, which will be entirely managed by women polling staff.

There are more than 2.52 lakh first-time voters in the city this time, who have showed great enthusiasm in exercising their rights queuing up outside booths despite an yellow alert issued by the IMD and 44 degrees Celsius already in some pockets of Delhi.

In this phase a total of 162 candidates were in the fray. Manoj Tiwari, and Bansuri Swaraj of BJP, Somnath Bharti and Kuldeep Kumar of Aam Aadmi Party and Kanhaiya Kumar and JP Agarwal of Congress were some of the prominent leaders who were contesting in these elections.

UNI