INDIA VOTES 2024: Young Delhi to play crucial role in deciding candidates’ future

Samad Hoque

New Delhi, March 21

With the announcement for the Lok Sabha election dates, political activities have picked pace here. In Delhi, which will go to the polls on May 25, young voters will play an important role in deciding the future of the candidates.

According to the latest electoral statistics, 44 per cent of the Delhi population is between the age group of 20 and 39. The Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi, in its earlier data, had shown that the national capital witnessed a significant increase of 85 per cent in the number of first-time voters of 18-19 years since 2019, which is registered at 1,47,074.

As per the Special Summary Revision-2024, a total of 67,930 new young voters were added to the electoral rolls since 2019. Meanwhile, the Chief Electoral Officer had also said that a total of 9,335 prospective voters applied for registration in the electoral rolls of Delhi.

The Special Summary revision-2024 saw the total electors at 1,47,18,119 — 79,86,572 male voters, 67,30,371 women voters and 1,176 third gender.

There are 40,78,227 voters in the age group of 30-39 years, while 24,19,998 voters come in the age category of 20-29 years. In the 40-49 age group, as many as 34,40,409 people are eligible to caste their voters. In the age group of above 80 years, there are 2,63,780 voters.

In the last General elections in 2019, the BJP, which won all the seven sets in the Capital, got 56.56 per cent votes, according to the data of Lokniti. The Congress and AAP secured 22.51 per cent and 18.11 percent votes, respectively.

The BJP won all seven seats in the last two terms – 2019 and 2014. It has announced its candidates for all seven seats, retaining Manoj Tiwari from Northeast Delhi, while from South Delhi, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri will contest the elections. The party has given ticket to Bansuri Swaraj from New Delhi, while Kamaljeet Sehrawat to fight Lok Sabha poll from West Delhi, and Praveen Khandelwal from Chandni Chowk.

As part of the INDIA bloc, the Congress and the AAP will contest three and four seats, respectively. For AAP, Kuldeep Kumar will fight from East Delhi, Somnath Bharti from New Delhi, Sahiram Pahalwan from South Delhi and Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi. The Congress are yet to announce its candidates for the national capital.