Why Delhi Assembly elections scheduled on Wednesday; Know what CEC Rajiv Kumar said

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced delhi assembly poll schedule on Tuesday. While announcing the delhi election schedule live, the CEC emphasised that 2025 delhi election date will be on a Wednesday, like it happened for Maharashtra polls.  

“We have deliberately kept voting on a Wednesday. We think all Delhi voters should cast their votes. Like Maharashtra, we have scheduled voting on a Wednesday. Entire election process after counting will be complete by February 10,” CEC Rajiv Kumar said.  

He further said, “You will notice that the date of the poll is Wednesday. This is deliberate and we have tried that it is mid-week so that the issue of urban apathy is handled,” the CEC had said while announcing the poll schedule for the state.” Voting in Maharashtra took place in a single-phase last year on November 20, Wednesday.  

The EC has noticed that voters in rural and remote areas participate more in comparison to voters in cities, urban and posh areas. This phenomenon is called ‘urban apathy’. In such cases, urban voters hesitate to come out and vote on the day of voting.  

In the last Delhi assembly election in 2020, the number of registered voters was 14,797,990, while voter turnout was very less, at 9,295,793. Whereas this year, according to the final voter list published on Monday, January 6, the total number of voters are 1,55,24,858, making this year’s registered voters more than the last polls, a net increase of 1.09 per cent. However, in 2020, voters turnout was recorded at 62.82%, a decline of 4.65% from the previous assembly election in Delhi in 2015. 

The Election Commission of India announced that voting will take place for all 70 assembly constituencies in the national capital on February 5, while counting of votes will take place on February 8. The EC also stated that January 17 is the last date for filing nominations and these nominations will be scrutinised on January 18. According to the EC, the last date for withdrawal of candidature is January 20. 

CEC Rajiv Kumar also said, “India is gold standard of elections. This is our common heritage... there is no scope of any irregularity in the commission, the procedures are so details. We are ready to punish if there are any mistake individually, we are ready to take punishment too.”

VIDEO | "India is gold standard of elections. This is our common heritage... there is no scope of any irregularity in the commission, the procedures are so details. We are ready to punish if there are any mistake individually, we are ready to take punishment too," says Chief… pic.twitter.com/KMYX4Rw5Gm

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) January 7, 2025