A total of 699 candidates will contest polls on 70 Delhi Assembly seats in the February 5 election, the Election Commission (EC) said.
According to the poll body, the deadline for submitting nominations was January 17 while the scrutiny was done on January 18 and the last date of withdrawal was January 20.
The New Delhi constituency, from where former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is contesting elections has the highest number of 23 candidates. BJP has fielded Parvesh Verma (son of former CM Sahib Singh Verma) and Congress has named Sandeep Dikshit (son of former CM Sheila Dikshit) from the seat.
Patel Nagar and Kasturba Nagar have the lowest, with just five candidates each. Followed by Tilak Nagar, Karol Bagh, Gandhi Nagar, Greater Kailash, Mangol Puri, Tri Nagar with six candidates each, as per ECI.
Key contenders for Greater Kailash seat include AAP’s Saurabh Bhardwaj, BJP’s Shikha Rai and Congress’ Garvit Singhvi. Key contenders for Kasturba Nagar seat include AAP’s Ramesh Pahalwan, BJP’s Neeraj Basoya and Congress’ Abhishek Dutt.
With polling day approaching, Delhi’s political landscape is heating up. BJP has alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party, which once claimed it would not allow criminals in the assembly to ensure the passage of strict laws, had fielded the highest number of candidates with criminal records.
Speaking to ANI, BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla said, “Aam Aadmi Party used to say that they do not want criminals in their assembly because criminals will not be able to pass important and strict laws. But when the list (of candidates) was released, it was found that the Aam Aadmi Party has the highest number of people with criminal records nearly 60%, followed by Congress. This means that Aam Aadmi Party has taken a U-turn once again.”
Notably, 70 assembly seats in Delhi will go to the polls in a single phase on February 5, and the votes will be counted on February 8.
The Congress, which was in power for 15 consecutive years in Delhi, has suffered setbacks in the last two assembly elections and has failed to win any seat. In contrast, the AAP dominated the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections by winning 67 and 62 seats respectively out of a total of 70 seats while the BJP got only three and eight seats.