Taking forward the process of forming ward-level committees for consultation on local development, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi asked unauthorised colonies to file applications for the RWC scheme. Seeking applications from unauthorised colonies with or without provisional certificates, Delhi Mayor Rajni Abbi issued directions to Councillors to “include such RWAs (Residents Welfare Associations) if they have not yet filed applications for their inclusion in the RWC scheme,” MCD said in a statement.

Some RWAs, opposing the MCD move, had written to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit claiming that the Residents Ward Committee (RWC) project is aimed at benefiting the BJP in next year’s MCD elections. Dikshit had sought clarifications from the civic body on the issue, but it continued with the process.

Abbi argued that unauthorised colonies cannot be kept outside the ambit of any scheme designed to improve civic engagement between residents and the MCD. “The residents of unauthorised colonies are equal citizens of the city and its planning, development and up-keep is of equal importance to them. Only because the rules do not permit MCD to spend funds in these colonies does not mean that they have no say in the manner and form in which the money is being spent,” she said. The MCD had announced the scheme for constituting RWCs on March 10 and said it will boost public participation in civic decision-making.

Barely two months after dust around the Lok Sabha elections settled down, Okhla is back in  election mode. The area is counting numbers, discussing the Batla House encounter, and speculating political moves.

While sitting Congress MLA Parvez Hashmi filed his nomination papers for Rajya Sabha seat vacated by J P Aggarwal, the race to replace the four-time MLA from Okhla Assembly constituency has already begun.

And Hashmi’s son Farhan Hashmi is being seen as one of the main contenders for a Congress ticket, and Hashmi himself is pushing his candidature. Nearly 65 per cent of the voting population in the area is Muslim. Among the other contenders are Congress councillor from Nizamuddin Farhad Suri and former Okhla MLA Siraj Parcha’s son Mehmood Parcha.

Another contender is former Badarpur MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who joined Congress last year before the Delhi Assembly elections. With part of the Badarpur constituency included in Okhla after delimitation, Bidhuri is expected to play a key role in retaining the seat.

Congress nominee for Rajya Sabha from Delhi Parvez Hashmi filed his nomination papers.

The seat fell vacant after sitting Rajya Sabha MP JP Agarwal was elected to Lok Sabha.

Hashmi, who is an MLA and a former Delhi Minister, was accompanied by party MPs from Delhi including Agarwal and entire Delhi Cabinet led by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit besides a large number of Congress leaders when he submitted papers to returning officer and Delhi Assembly Secretary Siddharath Rao.

The Cabinet also moved a resolution in support of Hashmi.

The Delhi High Court issued a notice to Ajay Maken and the returning officer of his Lok Sabha constituency asking for their
response on a plea seeking to declare Maken’s election null and void for alleged violation of the model code of conduct.

The court’s notice came on a petition, filed under the Representative of Peoples Act, seeking to declare Maken’s election null and void on the ground that he violated the code of conduct by spending much more than the maximum limit of Rs.25 lakh.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for petitioner Adesh Gupta, said Maken had claimed to have spent around Rs.20 lakh in his election campaign, but he issued full page advertisements in various national and local dailies.

“The MP adopted corrupt practices to get elected and distributed gifts among the electorate,” the counsel charged. The petition cited comparative charts of rates charged by newspapers for publishing advertisements.

The petition charged that Maken spent over Rs.1.5 crore on hoardings alone, which is contrary to his claim that he spent Rs.eight lakh on them. The minister claimed to have paid over Rs.80,000 to leading English dailies for the advertisements which was again not true, the petition alleged.

Even before the courts have cleared former MP Jagdish Tytler of his involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, Congress has reinstated him in the organisation by making him AICC in-charge of Bihar.

The development comes barely three months after the party was forced to withdraw Mr Tytler’s candidature for Delhi’s North-East Lok Sabha constituency. The man at the centre of the storm will preside over the party’s effort to rejuvenate itself in Bihar, replacing Iqbal Singh who has been appointed as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.

According to Sources, Mr Tytler is likely to be given the Rajya Sabha seat from Delhi, which had fallen vacant after J P Agarwal’s election to the Lok Sabha.

The party was forced to withdraw Mr Tytler from LS race after a Sikh journalist hurled a shoe at home minister P Chidambaram, drawing fresh attention on the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom. Mr Tytler along with fellow candidate Sajjan Kumar were withdrawn from the electoral race.

The Election Commission has announced by-elections to fill up 13 vacancies in Rajya Sabha from 10 States due to resignation of members following their election to Lok Sabha or other reasons. The poll will be held on August 10 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and counting will be at 5 p.m. on the same day.

The poll will be held for one seat each in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, National Capital Territory of Delhi, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, two seats in Madhya Pradesh and three in Maharashtra.

For the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Puducherry, the Commission decided not to fill up the vacancy now.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh on Saturday owned up responsibility for the party’s poor electoral showing and stressed that there was no need to “single out one person” for the debacle.

He said if one person has to take the blame “I am taking reponsibility”.

This is the first major gathering of the party leaders to discuss the electoral failure.

Singh said that the poll outcome showed that the country was proceeding towards a bi-polar polity and defended the issuesof Hindutva raised in the election campaign.

However, Singh maintained that there would be no compromise on ideology and added that the party would not regret the issues rose during campaigning like communal reservations as they were in the “country’s welfare”.

The BJP got 116 seats in the Lok Sabha elections – down from the 138 in 2004.

L.K. Advani was on Sunday elected as leader of the BJP’s Parliamentary Party which however failed to elect its deputy leader in the Lok Sabha and its Rajya Sabha chief leaving it to him to take the key decisions which would give broad contours of future leadership.

With his election at BJP’s Parliamentary Party’s first meeting after the recent Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Advani, 81, becomes the Leader of the Opposition by virtue of heading the single largest opposition party.

The Congress swept the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, with the party pocketing all seven seats in the city-state. Saturday’s results, after the convincing victory in last November’s Assembly elections, have as good as made the Capital a Congress fortress.

The margin for the Congress was the highest in East Delhi where Chief Minister’s son and sitting MP Sandeep Dikshit defeated BJP rival Chetan Chauhan by 2,41,053 votes.

In North-East Delhi Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president J. P. Agarwal, not only won the seat by the second highest margin of 2,22,243 votes.

In Chandni Chowk Union Minister Kapil Sibal of the Congress defeated his BJP rival and municipal councillor Vijender Gupta by 2,00,710 votes.

Union Minister of State and Congress candidate from New Delhi Ajay Maken who was pitted against BJP candidate and party national general secretary Vijay Goel posted a huge win by 1,87,809 votes.

Krishna Tirath won from the North-West Delhi reserved constituency by an almost similar margin of 1,84,433 votes defeating her BJP rival and former Delhi Mayor Meera Kanwaria.

Mahabal Mishra of the Congress, who was considered by many to be the weakest candidate of the seven, also proved his critics wrong by defeating senior BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi by a margin of 1,29,010 votes in West Delhi.

Finally in South Delhi, where like North-East Delhi the Congress replaced its candidate Sajjan Kumar with his brother Ramesh Kumar, the change did not affect the party’s fortune. And Mr. Ramesh Kumar  defeated his BJP rival Ramesh Bidhuri by 93,000 votes .

Today is the judgment day for India. Results of general elections 2009 are going to be declared today.

Counting of votes will be done at more than 1000 centers. More than 60,000 people will be handling the counting process under the supervision of Election Commission of India.

We have setup a dedicated page for elections results on our sister website IndiaElections.co.in, We will compiling all trends and results from all over the India for you.