NEW DELHI: Voters went to the polls in New Delhi yesterday on the first major day of India’s marathon national election, with the capital a key battleground for an anti-corruption party which shot to fame last year.

Almost a fifth of parliament’s 543 seats were up for grabs yesterday, the third of nine phases of voting in the world’s biggest election that will end when results are published on May 16.

As well as the capital and its 17 million residents, ballots were cast in densely populated rural constituencies in northern India where the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – seen as the election frontrunner – is expected to poll strongly.

But the day was of particular importance for the 18-month-old anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which triumphed in the Delhi state election last December and is now contesting more than 400 parliamentary seats nationally.

Seen as a potential challenge to India’s established political parties earlier this year, there were signs of disillusionment among some early voters after AAP’s troubled time running the Delhi government.

The party has struggled to shake the “quitter” tag following the dramatic resignation of party chief Arvind Kejriwal just 49 days after he came to office as the capital’s chief minister.

“We need stability. So I won’t waste my vote on him,” Jitender Singh, a 38-year-old rickshaw driver in a purple turban, said in the old part of the city.

“For now it is Modi, Modi, Modi for me. For the country actually.”

He was referring to BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who is tipped to become prime minister at the head of a coalition led by his party.

Many voters have been swayed by his promises of economic development, strong leadership and clean government after a decade of rule by the scandal-tainted Congress party and the Gandhi political dynasty, headed by party chief Sonia.

Kedarnath Agarwal, a 79-year-old speaking as shopkeepers rolled up their shutters and the first voters trickled into a nearby polling station, said he would abandon Congress for the first time in 50 years.

“All my hopes are pinned on Modi. He is a real leader, strong, decisive and experienced — that’s what we need this time,” he said.

The 63-year-old politician made headlines yesterday after declaring for the first time that he was married, ending one of the biggest mysteries about his closely guarded private life.

Media reports had previously described how he walked away from a marriage arranged by his parents when he was a child, but this has never been confirmed by the man himself who has portrayed his single status as a virtue while campaigning.

The first two rounds of voting took place on Monday and Wednesday in the remote northeast of the country.

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