Lok Sabha polls 2014: Sonia, Rahul, Priyanka turn out to vote

NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were among the Congress party luminaries to cast their ballot in Delhi on Thursday morning in the third phase of polling across the country. Timings have been extended for this election with booths opening an hour earlier and closing an hour later in most places in India -- starting at 7 am and closing at 6 pm.

Priyanka Gandhi and husband Robert Vadra were also seen at the polling booth early in the day.

The Congress has its back to the wall in the national capital where the party’s 15-year state government rule ended in defeat in assembly polls in December.

“I am feeling confident,” Rahul Gandhi told reporters. Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi greeted party workers but didn’t make any comment.

Senior party leaders including Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, All India Congress Committee general secretary Ajay Maken and others were with the Congress president and her deputy. The Congress, facing an uphill task as it tries to retain all seven Lok Sabha seats it won last time in Delhi, is locked in battle against both BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party.

The seven Congress candidates from Delhi include two Union ministers (Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath), one AICC general secretary (Ajay Maken), a former PCC chief (Jai Prakash Agarwal) and three siting Lok Sabha members (Sandeep Dikshit, Mahipal Mishra and Ramesh Kumar).