New Delhi : The Election Commission (EC) on Monday (January 6) announced that the election for 70-member Delhi Assembly will take place in single-phase on February 8, 2020. The counting of votes will take place on February 11, announced Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora.
The notification will be issued on January 14, 2020 and the last date of nomination is January 21, 2020. The scrutiny of nomination will take place on January 22. The last date for withdrawal of nominations will be January 24.
Addressing a press conference, CEC Arora said that 90,000 policemen will be deployed to ensure that the polling process is held smoothly across Delhi. Arora also told the media that the additional secretary will handle any additional deployment of officials on poll duty. The announcement of the election schedule means that Model Code of Conduct will come into effect in Delhi immediately.
The CEC also informed the media that consultation was held with three secretaries before finalising the election schedule. He added that the EC officials also held meeting with Delhi Police officials and other officials on December 26 to check preparedness for the upcoming polls.
According to the CEC, total electors in the final electoral roll of Delhi are 1,46,92,136 and polling will held at 13,750 polling stations. The term of the current Delhi Assembly ends on February 22 and a new House has to be constituted before that.
In the 2015 Delhi assembly election, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had performed superbly to win 67 out of the total 70 seats at stake. The BJP had won only three seats, while the Congress had failed to open its account.
Delhi’s ruling party AAP as well as BJP and Congress have already begun door-to-door canvassing ahead of the announcement of dates for the assembly election.
Earlier on Monday, Union Home Minister and BJP working Amit Shah targeted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress for failing to work for the development of Delhi.
Highlighting the move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to regularise unauthorised colonies in Delhi, Shah slammed Kejriwal for fooling the residents of the city and not keeping the promises made by his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). “I want to reassure the residents of unauthorised colonies of Delhi that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will help them in getting their own houses replacing the slums. A pilot project has started and 20,000 slums will give way to houses soon,” asserted Shah.
Bureau Report
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