New Delhi [India], January 19: A total of 1,040 nominations have been accepted following the scrutiny of candidates’ papers for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, while 477 nominations were rejected, according to the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi.
The scrutiny took place on January 18, after the deadline for filing nominations closed on January 17. The last date for candidates to withdraw their nominations is January 8.
Among those whose nominations were accepted are Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, BJP’s Parvesh Verma, and Congress’s Sandeep Dikshit. Kejriwal, the former Delhi Chief Minister, is contesting the New Delhi seat against Parvesh Verma (son of Sahib Singh Verma) from the BJP and Sandeep Dikshit (son of Sheila Dikshit) from Congress.
However, BJP candidate Parvesh Verma’s representative objected to Kejriwal’s nomination, alleging that Kejriwal had submitted a materially defective affidavit, providing misleading information to voters. The representative, Sanket Gupta, also claimed that Kejriwal’s name appeared in the voter list of Ghaziabad’s Kaushambi (ward no. 72) and argued that he did not disclose criminal cases filed against him at the North Avenue Police Station.
As the elections approach, the political battle in the national capital intensifies with the AAP, BJP, and Congress accusing each other. The AAP and Congress are competing separately despite being part of the INDIA alliance. Recently, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi questioned Kejriwal’s efforts on inflation and poverty in Delhi, while Kejriwal claimed that the election would expose the long-standing alliance between Congress and BJP, referring to it as a “jugalbandi.”
The BJP-led NDA has announced candidates for 68 out of 70 seats, leaving two seats (Burari and Deoli) for JDU’s Shailendra Kumar and LJP (RV), respectively.
Delhi will vote on February 5, and vote counting will take place on February 8. Congress, which had ruled Delhi for 15 consecutive years, has struggled in recent elections, while AAP dominated the 2020 Assembly elections with 62 out of 70 seats. The BJP secured just eight seats.