Lok Sabha election 2024: Nomination filing to start in Delhi, Gurgaon from today

The nomination process for Delhi and Gurgaon Lok Sabha seats begins Monday for elections on May 25. Delhi has 14.7 million voters and Gurgaon over 2.5 million.

The nomination process for all seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi and the single Lok Sabha seat in neighbouring Gurgaon will begin on Monday. The Election Commission of India (ECI) will issue notification for the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections and polling will take place on May 25.

At the Voters’ Park in Gurugram. Delhi and Gurugram go to polls on May 25. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

Candidates can file their nominations with returning officers from 11am to 3pm, barring Sunday. The nominations will be scrutinised on May 7 and nominations can be withdrawn till May 9. Votes will be counted on June 4.

As of February 1, 2024, the Capital has 14.7 million voters — nearly 8 million men, 6.7 million women and 1,176 third-gender people. In the past election, the city’s voter turnout was 60.60%, below the national average of 67%.

The seven Lok Sabha constituencies in the Capital are New Delhi, South Delhi, East Delhi, West Delhi, Chandni Chowk, North West and North East Delhi. Of the seven, New Delhi, with 1.48 million electors, is the smallest constituency and West Delhi, with 2.49 million electors, is the largest.

Gurgaon has over 2,546,916, of whom 1,347,521 are male, 1,199,317 are female and 78 are third-gender people.

Delhi to vote on key issues

The Capital is set to witness a direct contest between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-Congress alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This is the first time that the Capital will witness a direct contest between two political blocs since the AAP emerged as a political force in 2012, as all previous elections were triangular contests.

As part of the AAP-Congress seat-sharing agreement, the AAP will contest four seats — New Delhi, South Delhi, West and East Delhi — and the Congress, North East, Chandni Chowk and North West.

An official at the Delhi electoral office said a notification will be issued in newspapers on Monday morning and filing of nomination will begin at 10am on Monday.

“Almost all basic preparations have been done for conducting the polls, including training polling officials, making necessary arrangements for ensuring peace and purity by engaging necessary forces for conducting the polling, forming flying squads and constituting teams for statistics surveillance. Arrangements for voter facilitation and support are also being made,” a poll panel official said.

BJP’s candidate for the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, said he will be filing his nomination on May 3. “Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva and other leaders will join me for the nomination,” Bidhuri said.

BJP’s North West candidate Yogendra Chandolia will file his nomination on Monday, New Delhi candidate Bansuri Swaraj on Tuesday and East Delhi candidate Harsh Malhotra on Wednesday, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said.

The key issue in the Lok Sabha elections is the arrests of Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia for alleged corruption in the Delhi excise policy case. The AAP has centred its entire campaign on Kejriwal’s arrest and is urging people to vote for its alliance.

Further, there have been confrontations between the AAP’s state government and the BJP-led central government over a range of governance issues, such as water supply, sewer overflow and poor condition of infrastructure in unauthorised colonies is also a poll issue, among others.

Alleged irregularities in electoral bonds are a key plank of the AAP’s campaign. The AAP will highlight developmental and welfare works, including free services and a promise of ₹1,000 per month of financial assistance to women. The BJP is seeking votes on developmental works undertaken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. The BJP will seek to highlight various infrastructure works in the Capital.

Gurugram seeks to improve voter turnout

Officials in Gurugram sought to highlight that senior citizens older than 85 years and persons with more than 40-per cent disability will be allowed to vote from home. Deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav said on Sunday that there are 50,000 such voters.

“This facility for senior citizens and persons with disabilities is being provided for the first time as per directions of ECI. Block-level workers will visit the voters within five days of the notification of the election and get Form 12-D filled and submitted. It is the prerogative of the voters to opt for this facility; otherwise, they can visit the booths,” said Yadav.

According to the district administration, 35,559 voters are older than 85 years in Gurgaon constituency, while there are 15, 231 voters who are defined as “persons with disability” by the government.

Meanwhile, sitting Gurgaon MP and BJP candidate for the Lok Sabha seat, Rao Inderjit Singh, will file his nomination on Monday in the presence of chief minister Nayab Singh Saini. Inderjit Singh will address a public meeting at the Gurugram Club in Civil Lines before submitting his nomination.Singh has won the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat five times and is seeking re-election for the sixth time.

Yadav said that increasing the participation of citizens was key to a strong democracy and they have taken multiple steps to ensure the same. “We will help old and infirm to vote from home. There are over 11,000 service voters, who can vote through electronic transmitted postal ballot. Essential services providers can vote from any booth in the constituency, if they have a vote in Gurgaon,” he said.

To increase the participation and count of urban voters, Yadav said they have set up polling stations in 52 condominiums. “It will be ensured that voters get shelter, drinking water and public amenities at all polling stations. Volunteers from civil defence and NCC will be deployed to help voters and medical units will also be deployed,” he said.

When asked about instances of residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) threatening to boycott the elections, the Yadav said that they would reach out to such people and resolve their civic issues. “I appeal to the city residents not to connect local issues with Lok Sabha elections, as voting is a very special right and it must be exercised by people to strengthen democracy. We will be reaching out to people and motivating them to participate in this democratic exercise, which takes place once in five years,” he said.

The Sector 38 RWA initially threatened to boycott the elections due to civic issues, following which residents of Sushant Lok-2 and South City decided to follow suit.

To curb electoral malpractice and wrongdoings, Yadav said that election and expenditure observers have been appointed to keep a tab on the activities of candidates and their supporters.

The DC said special teams have been deployed and checkpoints been set up to prevent illegal interstate and intrastate movement of cash, liquor and drugs. “We have also directed candidates to ensure that rallies and meetings are held at designated places. For the nomination, the candidate can only be accompanied by four others into the election office,” he said.

The district administration will also set up special category booths, including pink booths for women, youth booths that will have people younger than 30 years taking on election duty and one for the specially abled.