The Congress bagged one more seat in the Delhi assembly when it won the Rajinder Nagar assembly by-election from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that had fielded the widow of its late leader Puran Chand Yogi.Polling in the constituency had been postponed to Dec 13 after Yogi, who had represented Rajinder Nagar in the Delhi assembly, committed suicide in the run-up to the elections.

According to figures, Congress’ Ramakant Goswami defeated BJP’s Asha Yogi by 5,406 votes. While Ramakant Goswami got 29,394 votes, Yogi’s widow managed 23,988. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Trilok Chand Sharma was third with 15,871 votes.

The Congress now has 43 seats in the 70-member assembly while the BJP has 23.

Unlike previous elections, the results of this year polls were bit delayed thanks to the random re-checking of EVMs, a provision introduced by the Election Commission to ensure fool-proof counting.

Counting of votes registered in EVM machines usually does not take more than four hours for an assembly seat. However, the counting continued for six hours in many constituencies in Delhi.

This provision has been introduced to ensure fool-proof counting.

The counting of ballot papers was conducted before the officials started counting votes from EVMs.

Ruling Congress won three seats in Delhi Assembly elections and was leading at 35 other constituencies while BJP was ahead at 26 seats in the 70-member Assembly.

Mukesh Sharma of Congress was the first to emerge victorious in the Delhi Assembly elections by defeating his nearest rival BJP’s Pawan Sharma in Uttam Nagar by a margin of 7,187 votes.

Another two-time MLA who won this time was Mahabal Mishra. He defeated his nearest BJP rival Pradyuman Rajput by 13,981 votes.

In Jungpura, two-time MLA Tarvinder Singh Marwah defeated Akali Dal’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa by a margin of 13,956 votes.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) chief ministerial candidate for Delhi elections V.K. Malhotra Tuesday replied to the Election Commission’s (EC) notice explaining that he did not violate any norms while filling his nomination.

According to the Election Commission guideline the maximum number of vehicles allowed to come within the periphery of 100 meters of the returning officer’s chamber is three. The maximum number of persons allowed in at the time of filing nomination is the candidate and four others.
EC Monday issued a notice to Malhotra for violating these instructions.

At least 1,138 candidates have filed their nominations for the Delhi assembly elections scheduled for November 29. Tuesday was the last day for filing nominations.

The nomination process in Delhi started on November 5. While scrutiny of nominations will take place Wednesday, the last day for withdrawing nominations is Friday.

During the last assembly elections five years back, 1,006 candidates had filed their nominations of whom 136 withdrew their names and 51 nomination papers were rejected.

There are 10.7 million eligible voters to choose 70 legislators. The results will be declared on December 8.

Determined to seize Delhi from the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is going to rake up the issue of attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra during the assembly elections here.

BJP’s chief minister hopeful V.K. Malhotra made it clear that his party believed that any Indian was free to live and work in any state of the country.

The BJP decision comes after Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) carried out a string of attacks against north Indians, particularly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

“This is definitely going to be an issue in the elections,” Malhotra said.. “It will be part of our manifesto and campaign. We respect people from all states and firmly believe that everyone has an equal right to live in the city. For us everyone is equal.”

Polling in Delhi is scheduled for Nov 29 and vote counting will take place Dec. 8.

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday released a “charge-sheet” against 10 years of “misrule” by the Congress Government in Delhi. It accused Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of making false promises to the people and not delivering on even what had been promised by the Congress in its previous election manifestos.

Mentioning “the onslaught of price rise, thirsty Delhi, heavy burden of privatisation of power, neglect of the poor, the dirty Yamuna, ruination of industries, chaotic transport, deteriorating health services, dismal state of education, increasing employment and exploitation of workers”, the charge-sheet alleges attempts to destroy the commercial character of Delhi and betrayal of the people living in unauthorised colonies.