Voting began this morning for the Delhi municipal polls to 272 wards in which the ruling BJP is locked in a triangular battle with the Congress and the AAP.
Among the early voters was Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal who cast his vote at Civil line.
Kejriwal, accompanied by his parents, wife and daughter, reached a polling booth in North Delhi's Civil Lines area to cast vote. Kejriwal's daughter, Harshita, voted for the first time.
Kejriwal witnessed a colossal loss for his party in the recently concluded Rajouri Garden polls and the Assembly Elections, in sharp contrast to AAP's historic win in the Delhi Assembly Polls two years ago when the party won 67 out of 70 seats.
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Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, however, has refused to acknowledge the Rajouri Garden fiasco as a "trailer for MCD polls".
He still remains hopeful of winning the MCD polls, urging voters to "Vote against filth, vote for dengue free, chikungunya-free Delhi,"
His party has been highlighting "corruption" in the BJP-led civic bodies, an issue it seeks to leverage in this contest.
Dubbing the MCD as the 'Most Corrupt Department', the Aad Aadmi Party had released a booklet listing instances of alleged graft in the BJP-ruled civic bodies.
The BJP is seeking to retain the turf which it has held for the last 10 years and fielded all fresh faces from 267 wards. The party has projected for itself a tally of over 200 out of the 272 seats.
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The AAP and the Congress too have claimed that they will cross the 200-mark.
The AAP has fielded candidates on all 272 wards while the Congress has 271 candidates in the fray.
The erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was trifurcated in 2012 into North, South and East Municipal Corporations.
There are 1,004 candidates vying in the NDMC area, 985 in SDMC and 548 in EDMC.
The Generation-1 electronic voting machines (EVMs) are being used for the polls, which the Commission has described as "foolproof".
(With inputs from PTI)
