In the queue since 7.30am, the heat got to former ambassador Bhaswati Mukherjee in about half an hour. “I have voted in this booth for the last 40 years and never have I had to wait this long,” she told the presiding poll officer when her turn came to cast her vote.

Old-timers at the polling station for Sarvodaya Enclave in the New Delhi constituency said they hadn’t seen so many of their neighbours turn up this early to vote, adding that it’s rarely this hot so early in the day during this time of the year.

Civil society group Independent Election Observers (IEOs) and New Delhi’s AAP candidate Somnath Bharti complained of abnormally slow polling in several booths.

The IEOs also noted and filed complaints against several BJP voter kiosks for displaying the party symbol or messages asking people to vote for those “who brought Lord Ram”, and instances of voters finding their votes have been cast in North East and North West Delhi.

The AAP is fighting in four and the Congress in three seats in the capital. The BJP has held all seven seats for the last two terms and is contesting on all seats this time, too.

A milk booth operator in South Delhi, Pawan Yadav, who planned to vote during his lunch break, said: “There seems to be more crowd as AAP and Congress are together. People come out when there is a good fight,” he said.

The capital’s voter turnout, however, remained below the national average as it has been lately, a phenomenon that the Election Commission calls “urban apathy”.

At 7.30pm, the capital’s average turnout was 54.37 per cent. New Delhi witnessed the lowest turnout at 51.54 per cent and North East Delhi saw the highest polling at 58.3 per cent. The sixth phase national average at the same time was 59 per cent. The final turnout for the capital in 2019 was 60.6 per cent.

Urdu teacher Akshita Nagpal bucked the trend and flew here from Mumbai only to vote. “I have a stake in the future of my country and I came to vote for the politics of love…. I have been away (from Kingsway Camp in Chandni Chowk seat) for eight years. I did not change my address. I feel responsible for the place I grew up in,” she said.

JNU professor Ayesha Kidwai has voted for the last 33 years at the Indian Statistical Institute in South Delhi, where her husband Rahul Roy teaches, she found her name missing from the list when she went to vote on Saturday.

She wrote on Facebook: “...Nobody could reply to my angry questions as to whether my name was deleted because it is a Muslim name. Especially when my husband Rahul, with whom I have lived with, and voted together for 33 years in the same house is pristinely secure (on the list)....I will not give up without fighting this, rest assured.”