New Delhi, Jan 7: The updated electoral rolls announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) give a detailed break-up of the electorate including men, women and young voters. A closer look at the ‘new voters base’ goes on to show women’s increased participation in the electoral process, particularly after the sops promised by political parties.

On December 16, former Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal promised to raise the monthly allowance for women from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,100 while the Congress has recently promised Rs 2,100 per month to women voters under the ‘Pyari Didi scheme’. The BJP is also expected to announce sops for women in its 'Sankalp Patra'.

The Chief Electoral officer (CEO) told the press that the poll body has seen an ‘unprecedented rush’ for new voter registrations particularly after December 16, 2024 and added that women voters have outnumbered men in new registrations.

According to the EC's data, more than 5.1 lakh new voter applications have poured in after December 16 and the verification process for the same is currently underway.

The numbers are small in terms of the electoral roll but this does indicate the growing interest and participation of women in the polling process and eventually their potential to influence the city's poll outcome.

Compared to this, about 1.67 lakh new voters were added in Delhi’s electoral rolls in the past two months, from October to December 2024.

“In October 2024, the total number of voters stood at 1,53,57,529. This number got revised to 1,55,24,858, marking an addition of 1,67,329 new electorates by December 2024,” the EC said in its statement.

According to the data released by the ECI through Delhi CEC, the past two months witnessed a rise of about 1.09 per cent (1.67 lakh) in the draft electoral roll while the number of voters rose by 5 per cent from 2020 (from 1.48 crore to 1.55 crore voters).

As per the EC's electoral roll, the total electorate in the national Capital stands at 1,55,24,858, out of which 83,49,645 are male, 71,73,952 female and 1,261 third gender voters.

The rise in voter registrations remains scattered across all the constituencies. As per the EC, Vikaspuri constituency in West Delhi has the highest numbers of 4,62,184 voters while Delhi Cantt in South West Delhi has the lowest numbers at 78,893.

New Delhi, the most high-profile seat of Delhi has about 1,09,000 voters and is the second-smallest constituency in Delhi. The seat is witnessing a hotly-contested battle between the AAP's National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal, former BJP MP Parvesh Verma and Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit.

Iconic locations of Old Delhi like Chandni Chowk and Matia Mahal seats also have smaller voter bases, with 1,26,000 and 1,29,000 voters, respectively.

--IANS
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