A total of 1,040 nominations have been accepted during scrutiny of the nominations filed by several candidates for the assembly elections for the 70 seats of the Delhi Assembly, said the Office of Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi.
As per the Delhi CEO, a total of 477 nominations have been rejected out of the total nominations filed. The scrutiny of the nominations was done on January 18, as the last date for filing nominations was January 17. The last date for the withdrawal of candidature is January 8. The nominations of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, BJP's Parvesh Verma and Congress Sandeep Dikshit have been accepted. Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is contesting elections from the New Delhi seat against the sons of two former Delhi CMs, i.e, BJP's Parvesh Verma (son of Sahib Singh Verma) and Congress' Sandeep Dikshit (son of Sheila Dikshit). On Saturday, a representative of BJP candidate from the New Delhi constituency Parvesh Verma objected to the nomination of AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal and demanded the Election Commission reject his nomination papers. Sanket Gupta, authorised representative of Parvesh Verma, in his letter to the Returning Officer of the New Delhi assembly constituency, alleged that the affidavit submitted by Kejriwal is materially defective and he had knowingly given wrong information in his affidavit to mislead the voters. The representative of the BJP candidate also claimed that the vote of Arvind Kejriwal is also there at Ghaziabad's Kaushambi, ward no 72, having voter no 991. Sanket Gupta also claimed that Kejriwal has not given details of the criminal cases filed against him at the North Avenue Police Station. As the assembly elections inch closer, the poll battle in the national capital has also intensified, with the three parties - AAP, BJP, and Congress levelling allegations against each other. This assembly is witnessing a clash within the INDIA alliance as AAP and Congress are fighting the elections separately. Recently, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi asked former CM and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal what he has done towards combating inflation and helping the poor in the national capital while the latter claimed that the upcoming Assembly polls would uncover the long-standing alliance between the Congress and BJP, describing it as a "jugalbandi". However, the BJP-led NDA seems to be united in these assembly polls as the BJP has announced its candidates on 68 seats out of 70, leaving two seats of Burari for JDU's Shailendra Kumar and Deoli for LJP (RV). Delhi will go for polls on February 5 while the counting of votes will take place on February 8. The Congress, which was in power for 15 consecutive years in Delhi, has suffered setbacks in the last two assembly elections and has failed to win any seat. In contrast, the AAP dominated the 2020 assembly elections by winning 62 out of 70 seats while the BJP got only eight seats. (ANI)
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