Over 2,000 nominations filed on Monday, MCD election moves to canvassing phase

Monday was an unusually hectic day for filing nominations as all the three key political parties--the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress-- announced their candidate list over the weekend, with Saturday and Sunday being public holidays

The State Election Commission (SEC) received at least 2,000 nominations for the municipal elections at 68 locations across Delhi on Monday, the last day for filing nominations. The candidates will now start canvassing as part of the next phase of the election process.

The last-day rush led to crowding at several centres while the traffic jams impacted vehicular movement at key intersections such as ITO and Vikas Marg. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

Due to the last-day rush, the nomination process continued until late in the night. At the time of writing of this report, the SEC status report said: “Due to the single-day rush, nominations for all candidates who arrived by 3pm continued till late evening and the process of uploading of nomination documents is under way. Till 11.20pm, 2,140 nominations have been processed.”

Monday was an unusually hectic day for filing nominations as all the three key political parties--the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress-- announced their candidate list over the weekend, with Saturday and Sunday being public holidays. Between November 7 and November 13, the SEC had received only 35 nominations. An SEC official said the scrutiny of nominations will take place till Wednesday and candidates will be able to withdraw their nominations till Saturday--November 19. The municipal elections are scheduled to be held on December 4 while the counting will take place on December 7. “The election process will be officially over by December 15,” the official added.

The nomination process started at 11am and continued till 3pm, and all the candidates who had entered the office premises before the cut-off time were permitted to file their papers.

The premises of returning officers on Monday witnessed rival candidates greeting each other and supporters having heated discussions over what will drive the elections in the last three weeks. Key political functionaries from both AAP and BJP, including deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, AAP Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in-charge Durgesh Pathak, BJP chief Adesh Gupta, BJP Delhi in-charge BJ Panda and MP Manoj Tiwari among others accompanied their party contestants to various offices for filing nominations.

Explaining the nomination process, an official from RO office said: “All candidates filed nomination papers with two affidavits regarding criminal background, assets, liabilities, and educational qualification. The candidates from recognised national or Delhi state parties submitted nomination papers proposed by one elector from the ward they are contesting from and other candidates need 10 proposers. The nominees also filed papers related to election symbols and deposited ₹5,000 as security,” he said.

According to SEC, the process for receipt of nominations went smoothly and district magistrates, deputy commissioners of police and deputy commissioners of MCD coordinated arrangements for traffic circulation, parking and basic facilities. “SEC-appointed Observers supervised the entire operation,” the SEC said.

However, the last-day rush led to crowding at several centres while the traffic jams impacted vehicular movement at key intersections such as ITO and Vikas Marg.

BJP Delhi chief Adesh Gupta who visited the ITO nomination office said that people of Delhi are now tired of corruption in Delhi government. “AAP leaders are engaging in once corruption scandal after another. In the name of work, they have undertaken false propaganda,” Gupta said.

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, who met the AAP candidates for MCD elections at the nomination centre in East Delhi’s Patparganj said that the people of Delhi are irked with the misdeeds of the BJP for the past 17 years. “The primary task of BJP in MCD was to keep Delhi clean but it has failed terribly. AAP knows how to deliver the basic facilities to the people and it is contesting the elections on the basis of the development it has brought in Delhi. This time the people of Delhi will take full account of the BJP’s failure. They have decided to clean Delhi,” Sisodia said.

With the completion of nomination process, the candidates will now start the canvassing process in the municipal wards initiating the next phase of the election process. BJP will be fighting a three-term anti-incumbency in these elections while the AAP will attempt to complete its hold over the elected wing of governance in the Capital. In the2012 elections, BJP had won 138 seats, Congress got 77 seats and others had 57 seats. In 2017, BJP secured 181 seats, AAP won 49 seats, while Congress remained at the third spot with 31 seats.