Delhi Election 2025: Delhi’s Assembly elections concluded with minimal disruptions, thanks to a heavy security presence. However, concerns over voter roll deletions and alleged electoral malpractices surfaced, leading to tensions among political parties and voters.
Tight security ensured peaceful voting
Over 30,000 police personnel and 220 paramilitary companies were deployed across the national capital, ensuring no major law and order incidents.
Authorities classified 3,000 polling booths as sensitive, implementing drone surveillance, Quick Reaction Teams, and Striking Teams to monitor proceedings. Each sensitive booth was also guarded by a company of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF).
To prevent disturbances from bordering states, police and paramilitary forces barricaded roads within a 100-metre radius of sensitive booths. Vehicles entering Delhi from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana underwent intensive checks.
Complaints of electoral malpractices
While the elections were largely peaceful, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) exchanged serious allegations of electoral malpractices.
The incumbent AAP alleged that their polling agents were denied access to multiple booths.
AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP, Raghav Chadha, told journalists, “Both the reliever and the polling agent are given the status of polling agent. But such complaints are coming from many places in the New Delhi Assembly constituency. In almost half the booths, this complaint is coming that the reliever is not being allowed to go inside. The security personnel deployed outside the polling station are not allowing our reliever to go inside.”
Former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal condemned the alleged restrictions, stating, “This is too much. How can you not let the reliever go inside? If the booth agent inside has to go to the toilet, will you keep him captive? The reliever will go in his place. This is a human rights violation. How can you keep the booth agents captive?” he wrote on X.
BJP supporters accused AAP of facilitating bogus voting in North East Delhi’s Seelampur constituency. “300-400 fake voters have been brought from Loni in Uttar Pradesh by the AAP and Congress candidates from this constituency… Such wrong things should not happen… These people have become MLAs by doing wrong things…,” BJP candidate from the constituency Anil Gaur alleged.
The voting was temporarily halted at a polling booth set up in Aryan Public School in Seelampur after a voter alleged fake voting.
“A woman voter who had come to vote was told that her vote had already been cast. At that moment, the voting was temporarily halted,” Seelampur Block Level Officer Sabina Sadiq was quoted by news agency ANI.
According to the Delhi Police, a PCR call was made by one 26-year-old Mohini, a resident of Usmanpur, alleging that her vote had already been cast by someone else.
Police clarified that the confusion stemmed from both women having similar names.
“The enquiry revealed that confusion arose due to a voter having a similar name, Munni Devi, aged 60 years having the same address. The 60-year-old woman was an earlier tenant at the same address. After verification, the Presiding Officer allowed both women to cast vote,” the police said.
A senior police official explained, “At about 11:50 AM, at Aryan Public School, Jafrabad voting centre, the BJP candidate from the Seelampur constituency levelled the allegations of bogus voting against the AAP candidate. In response, supporters from both parties began sloganeering. Police officers, along with additional staff, promptly arrived at the scene and resolved the issue. The situation is now completely under control.”
Additionally, police arrested two alleged fraudulent voters in East Delhi’s Kasturba Nagar. Before election day, officers had apprehended six individuals with forged documents in Shaheen Bagh and two others in New Delhi.
Some voters in the Deoli constituency alleged that local strongmen pressured them to vote for the AAP candidate.
Several Delhiites also took to X to complain that their names were missing from the electoral rolls. A user on X, Tejusurya 2.0, alleged that his entire family’s names had been deleted without prior notice.
“My and my entire family votes have been deleted from the voter list without any notice. While I get 300 message a week to pay my taxes on time, not one message received while deletion of vote,” (sic) he posted.
This tweet to applaud the exemplary work by @ECISVEEP @narendramodi
My and my entire family votes have been deleted from the voter list without any notice
While I get 300 message a week to pay my taxes on time, not one message received while deletion of vote
Yours,
Tejusurya— Tejusurya 2.0 (@Tejusurya_) February 5, 2025
AI chatbot introduced but underutilised
Delhi Police introduced two Artificial Intelligence chatbots, “Chunav Mitra” and “Cyber Sarthi,” to assist officers with election-related queries.
“It is designed to address queries and clarify doubts about elections. For instance, if someone asks whether a candidate can place a table right outside the polling booth, they will receive an immediate response,” a senior official stated.
However, limited training rendered the tool ineffective. Several officers noted that a better training programme could have improved its usability, as not all personnel are technologically adept.
Massive MCC violations recorded
Between January 7 and February 4, authorities registered 1,092 cases of Model Code of Conduct violations. Law enforcement officials seized 475 unlicensed firearms and 534 cartridges, leading to 496 arrests. Additionally, 1,14,211.87 litres of liquor were confiscated, with 1,404 individuals arrested.
Also Read: Delhi polls: More than 1,000 cases of MCC violations registered
In anti-narcotics operations, 196.602 kg of drugs worth over Rs 77.9 crore, along with 1,200 injections, were seized, resulting in 177 arrests. Officials also confiscated Rs 11,60,31,697 in cash and precious metals, including 0.850 kg of gold and 37.396 kg of silver. Furthermore, 34,746 individuals were detained under preventive action measures and other related laws.
Despite these concerns, Delhi’s elections concluded without major disruptions, with security forces ensuring a largely peaceful voting process.