New Delhi: Delhi’s northeast Lok Sabha constituency, in which state BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, former chief minister Sheila Dikshit and AAP’s Dilip Pandey are pitted against each other, recorded the highest turnout at 63.45% in the polls on Saturday. 

The constituency comprises the riot-hit Seelampur, which recorded a turnout of 66.47% and Mustafabad which saw a total turnout of 65.22% which are minority-dominated Assembly segments. 

The Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency with minority-dominated areas like Ballimaran, Matia Mahal, Shakur Basti, recorded the second-highest voter turnout at 62.63%.

Though Delhi polls witnessed a sluggish start, the evening voter percentage in Delhi saw a sharp uptick with about 60% of voter turnout. The national capital had recorded a voter turnout of 67.12% in the 2015 Assembly elections.

On the eve of the Delhi Assembly elections, the mosques in the riot-hit Seelampur and Okhla have urged Muslims to vote in large numbers on Saturday, reported Hindustan Times. These are the areas where Muslim mobs had taken to streets and gone rampant causing riots as a result of their opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). It is also worthy to note that Congress and AAP leaders were booked for the anti-CAA riots in these areas by Muslim mobs.

Following an incident on Friday in which two gunmen allegedly fired four rounds near a shop in the area, the Imam had urged people to make sure that they vote, adding that residents in the locality which come under the riot-hit Seelampur constituency should not be deterred by such “gunfire incidents”.

Though no person was injured in the firing, the local Muslims had decided to vote in large numbers for reasons that range from education to civic issues.

Delhi was the epicentre of the anti-CAA riots, which later spread to different parts of the country. The Muslim mob in Delhi’s Seelampur had unleashed the violence against public infrastructure and pelted stones at the police injuring many of them. The violent protestors had even attacked school buses in Delhi’s Seelampur area.