"Women's Participation Important": Swati Maliwal's Message To Voters

Stating women's participation in politics is very important, Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal on Saturday appealed to them to come out and cast their votes as the polling is underway for all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital.

"It is a very big day for the democracy. I want to appeal to everyone, especially women to come out and cast their votes. In India, women's participation in politics is very important," said Maliwal, the former chief of the Delhi Commission of Women (DCW), after casting her vote in the national capital.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is facing heat since Maliwal alleged that Arvind Kejriwal's former personal secretary Bibhav Kumar assaulted her at the Delhi Chief Minister's residence on May 13.

Maliwal complained to the Delhi police against Bibhav Kumar on May 14, a day after the alleged assault took place. A day later, Bibhav Kumar lodged a counter-complaint with the police, accusing Maliwal of gaining 'unauthorized entry' into the CM's Civil Lines residence and 'verbally abusing' him.

A case was filed against Bibhav Kumar and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to investigate the case based on Maliwal's complaint. Bibhav was arrested by the Delhi Police on Sunday, May 19, and is currently in police custody.

Voting for the sixth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections began on Saturday morning across 58 parliamentary constituencies spread over six states and two Union Territories (UTs) amid tight security and arrangements.

The sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls includes eight seats in Bihar, all 10 seats in Haryana, one seat in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Jharkhand, all seven seats in Delhi, six in Odisha, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, and eight in West Bengal. A total of 889 candidates are in the fray.

The riveting contest in Delhi has AAP and Congress as part of the INDIA bloc jointly taking on the BJP, which won all seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital in the last two elections. While Congress is contesting on three seats in the national capital, AAP is contesting on four.

Polling has already been completed on 428 parliamentary constituencies for 25 states and UTs in the first five phases of general elections. Over 11.13 crore voters including 5.84 crore male, 5.29 crore female and 5120 third gender electors are eligible to exercise their franchise in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls. Around 11.4 lakh polling officials will be involved in conducting his phase of the election.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)