Delhi polls: All hats in the ring as campaign set to enter peak
The scene at the nomination offices across the national Capital was chaotic as candidates, flanked by their supporters, rushed to file their papers on the last day. Candidates for some seats were announced as late as Tuesday morning, hours before the deadline to file the papers ended
NEW DELHI: As the deadline for filing nomination papers expired on Tuesday, nomination centres saw a flurry of crowds as candidates from all parties rushed to throw their hats in the ring for the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi, where voters are scheduled to elect the new Assembly on February 8. The stage is set and the candidates have been chosen for the three-corner fight between Aam Aadmi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress.
On the last day of filing of nomination, nearly 200 candidates, including Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, filed their papers. With a long queue at the New Delhi returning officer’s office at the Jamnagar House in central Delhi, Kejriwal had to wait for over six hours for his turn.
According to information shared by the Delhi CEO Office, till 9 pm, 592 nominations were received on Tuesday for 55 constituencies. “The total number of nominations at this time stands at 1,353. The number will be updated as and when the documents are processed,” a senior official of the Delhi CEO office said.
The scene at the nomination offices across the national Capital was chaotic as candidates, flanked by their supporters, rushed to file their papers on the last day. Candidates for some seats were announced as late as Tuesday morning, hours before the deadline to file the papers ended.
Delhi Cabinet ministers and AAP MLAS Gopal Rai, Imran Hussain and Rajendra Pal Gautam on Saturday filed nominations for the Assembly elections. While Rai filed nomination from the Babar
pur seat, Pal filed his nominations from Seemapuri. Hussain filed his nomination from the Ballimaran seat. Apart from them, AAP’S Raghav Chadha also filed nomination from the Rajinder Nagar seat. The last date of withdrawal of candidature will be January 24.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday again asked the Bharatiya Janata Party to disclose the name of their Chief Ministerial face for the upcoming elections, with the party’s
Delhi Convenor Gopal Rai saying that both the BJP and the Congress have no one who can present a challenge to an “honest and hardworking” CM like Arvind Kejriwal.
“BJP is trying to cobble together a coalition to gain some measure of confidence to face AAP in elections. But the magnitude of love from the people of Delhi that poured out on the streets on Monda during Kejriwal’s roadshow is evidence of the fact that because Kejriwal worked for the people of Delhi, today the people of Delhi have made it their battle and taken this electoral battle head-on,” he said.
The saffron party on Tuesday named Yuva Morcha president Sunil Yadav as candidate from the New Delhi assembly seat against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Majority of candidates of Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal United and Lok Janshakti Party filed nominations in the presence of their supporters on Tuesday. These include Abhay Kumar Verma from Laxmi Nagar, Rajeev Babbar from Tilak Nagar, Kapil Mishra from Model Town, Pradesh Secretary Vikram Bidhuri from Tughlakabad, Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga from Harinagar Assembly, Dharmveer Singh from Kalkaji, Dr. Anil Goel from Krishna Nagar. Meanwhile, HCL Gupta from Sangam Vihar of Janata Dal United filed his nomination. At the same time, Lok Janshakti Party candidate from Seemapuri also filed his nomination on Tuesday. Union Minister Harsh Vardhan and MPS Pravesh Verma and Gautam Gambhir, were present with the nominees.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari on Tuesday said the people are disillusioned with the Kejriwal government and the Congress party in Delhi and do not want to see them coming to power again. “This is the reason why the Bharatiya Janata Party is not only getting immense support of the public but also many leaders of Aam Aadmi Party and Congress are joining Bharatiya Janata Party,” said Tiwari.
Congress candidates also filed their nomination papers on Tuesday. Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra’s daughter Shivani Chopra, Rocky Tuseed, the former DUSU president and senior Congress leader Mukesh Sharma were among the candidates filed their nominations. Tuseed has been fielded from the Rajendra Nagar Assembly seat against the Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha and BJP’S RP Singh. Senior Congress leader Mukesh Sharma, a former MLA, is contesting from Vikas Puri seat. While Shivani is contesting from Kalkaji constituency.
Subhash Chopra on Tuesday said Delhi government had wasted time clashing with the Central Government, the L-G and the Municipal Corporations of Delhi without fulfilling the promises made to the people. Chopra said, “Delhi CM woke up to the reality of serving the people of Delhi only in the last five-six months after remaining in deep slumber for four and a half years.”