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Voting for the seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi started on Saturday morning, marking the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election. Tight security measures are in place.

 

The weather department has issued a "yellow alert" for the day and predicts that the temperature could reach a high of 44 degrees Celsius. Due to the heat, the Delhi election department is making necessary arrangements for voters.

 

People were observed lining up outside polling stations even before voting commenced at 7 am.

 

According to the official figures, 1.52 crore voters, comprising 82 lakh males, 69 lakh females, and 1,228 individuals belonging to the third gender category, are eligible to cast their votes at over 13,000 polling booths across the seven constituencies.

 

This year, the city has more than 2.52 lakh first-time voters.

 

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has nominated Kuldeep Kumar for the East Delhi seat, Mahabal Mishra for West Delhi, Somnath Bharti for New Delhi, and Sahi Ram Pahalwan for South Delhi.

 

The Congress has nominated J P Agarwal from the Chandni Chowk seat, Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi and Udit Raj from the North West Delhi constituency.

 

The BJP candidates are Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi, the only sitting MP from Delhi fielded by the party again; Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi; Bansuri Swaraj from New Delhi; Harsh Deep Malhotra from East Delhi; Yogendra Chandolia from North West Delhi; Praveen Khandelwal from Chandni Chowk and Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi.

 

The BJP has won all seven seats in Delhi with significant margins in both the 2014 and 2019 general elections. They are now aiming for a third consecutive clean sweep.

 

The opposition INDIA bloc, comprising AAP and Congress, has decided to contest the elections in Delhi using a four-three seat-sharing formula.

 

This is the first time in a Lok Sabha election in Delhi that AAP and Congress have jointly fielded candidates against the BJP, posing a significant challenge to the ruling party at the Centre.