AAP to defend its ‘Delhi Dominion’ on Feb 5 against resurgent BJP; Cong no pushover (Roundup)

New Delhi, Jan 7 Over 1.55 crore Delhi voters will elect their 70 new legislators in a single-phase Assembly election on February 5 and the results will be declared on February 8, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced on Tuesday.

Sharing details of 13,033 polling stations and the election schedule, CEC Rajiv Kumar, Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu used the opportunity to reiterate that EVMs are tamper-proof, caution parties to maintain decorum in the campaign and avoid making financially unfeasible poll promises.

Addressing doubts over the fair conduct of elections, CEC Rajiv Kumar gave an audio-visual presentation on six key issues including wrongful additions or deletion of names in the electoral roll and targeting of particular groups of voters; EVM manipulation; increase in voter turnout after 5 p.m. on polling day; mismatch in votes polled and counted in some constituencies, slowing down of vote counting and change in rules to restrict sharing of CCTV footage of polling booth.

The CEC also took pride in the fact that the country is poised to become a nation with one billion registered voters. "Our electoral rolls released yesterday, and in four more states today, show that we are crossing 99 crore registered voters. Soon, we will be a nation of one billion voters, the maximum in the world," he said.

While reiterating ECI’s inability to stop candidates from making lucrative poll promises, he also cautioned political parties against offering freebies that empty state coffers.

“We cannot mortgage the future of the coming generation,” he said, criticising the malpractice of political parties making financially unfeasible promises during elections.

CEC Rajiv Kumar suggested that the parties should inform voters about the financial cost of each promise they make so that voters are aware of its implication for the government and its debt.

To minimise the possibility of the Central government offering freebies to Delhi voters in the coming Union Budget, CEC Rajiv Kumar said the ECI will write to the government barring it from making any Delhi-specific announcement in the Budget that is likely to be presented just four days before voting in Delhi.

In the backdrop of rising political temperatures and a spurt in venomous personal attacks in Delhi, the CEC called upon all political parties to maintain decorum while electioneering.

The EC told parties to refrain from "spreading lies" about the electoral process, emphasising that such actions mislead the public and discourage youth participation in elections.

He said the ECI will not hesitate to file cases if candidates attempt to cross moral limits through derogatory comments against women during the campaign.

The ECI’s stern message came in the backdrop of BJP candidate from Kalkaji seat Ramesh Bidhuri’s comments -- “Roads like Priyanka Gandhi’s cheeks” and “Atishi has changed her father” -- that targeted Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Atishi.

The CEC, who is likely to retire next month, also gave two suggestions for electoral reforms.

He said there is a need to involve the 30 crore missing voters in the electoral process, adding that the nation needs to debate if remote voting, trials for which have already been conducted, could be a solution for involving those who are unable to vote.

On the issue of protecting the identity of voters at each polling booth, which is still not fool-proof due to non-mixing of EVMS, he suggested that one way of tackling the issue could be the use of a “totalizer” through which a total of votes from all EVMs could be arrived at the end of each round of counting, masking voting details related to individual EVMs or booths.

In the outgoing 70-member Delhi Assembly, the ruling AAP has 62 legislators and the BJP has eight.

As the ruling Aam Aadmi Party will be trying to retain power for the third term, the BJP has been pulling out all the stops to come back to power in the national capital while the Congress will be leaving no stone unturned to improve its performance.