LS poll nomination process to commence in Delhi from Monday

Political parties in the national capital are gearing up for the nomination process for the seven Lok Sabha seats, set to begin from April 29.Union ministers including Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goel, Arjun Meghwal, and Hardeep Singh Puri, and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and his Rajasthan counterpart Bhajan Lal Sharma, among other senior BJP leaders, are likely to accompany the party candidates to the nomination centres, according to sources.

Political parties in the national capital are gearing up for the nomination process for the seven Lok Sabha seats, set to begin from April 29.

Union ministers including Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goel, Arjun Meghwal, and Hardeep Singh Puri, and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and his Rajasthan counterpart Bhajan Lal Sharma, among other senior BJP leaders, are likely to accompany the party candidates to the nomination centres, according to sources. The filing of nomination papers for the seven Lok Sabha seats here -- East Delhi, South Delhi, West Delhi, New Delhi, Chandni Chowk, North East Delhi and North West Delhi -- will begin on April 29, official sources said on Saturday.

Each candidate can be accompanied by four others and will be allowed within the 100-metre periphery of the nomination centres where returning officers will collect their papers, sources from the Delhi chief electoral officer's (CEO) office said.

The candidates will not be allowed to use more than three vehicles for reaching the nomination centre, the officials said.

The nomination papers have to be filed at the offices of seven returning officers (ROs) from 11 am to 3 pm. The last date of filing nominations is May 6, they said.

Voting on all the seven seats will be held on May 25 with 1.51 crore eligible voters, including 81.63 lakh men, 69.37 lakh women and 1,215 third-gender casting their votes at more than 13,000 polling booths across the city.

Each candidate filing nomination is allowed to be accompanied by four persons, including two proposers, to the offices of returning officers (ROs) or deputy commissioners of North Delhi, North East Delhi, Chandni Chowk, North West Delhi, New Delhi, South Delhi and West Delhi, the officials said.

The nomination papers should carry personal information of the candidate such as academic record, financial assets, and criminal cases, if any, they said.

Contestants in the general category have to submit a security deposit of Rs 25,000, while the deposit amount is Rs 12,500 for candidates of scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) categories, they added.

The three major political parties -BJP, AAP and Congress are gearing up for the nominations of their candidates, respective party leaders said.

Delhi BJP leaders said their party candidates will file nomination papers by May 3. BJP's North West Delhi nominee Yogendra Chandolia said he will take out a 2-km procession to reach his nomination centre. The party's North East Delhi candidate Manoj Tiwari and East Delhi nominee Harsh Malhotra will file their nominations on May 1. Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh is likely to join Tiwari, while Dhami is likely to accompany Malhotra.

BJP's West Delhi candidate Kamaljeet Sehrawat said she will file her nomination papers on May 2. Other BJP candidates Ramvir Singh Bidhuri (South Delhi) , Bansuri Swaraj (New Delhi) and Pravin Khandelwal (Chandni Chowk) will file their nomination papers on different dates, party leaders said.

AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai said preparations have started for filing of nominations. AAP has fielded Kuldeep Kumar in East Delhi, Sahiram Pehelwan in South Delhi, Mahabal Mishra in West Delhi and Somnath Bharti in New Delhi constituencies.

Its INDIA bloc ally Congress is contesting on Chandni Chowk, North East Delhi and North West Delhi seats.

A senior Delhi Congress leader said the partys' three candidates -- Kanahaiya Kumar (East Delhi), J P Agarwal (Chandni Chowk) and Udit Raj (North West Delhi) will file nominations in the first week of May. The party has yet to distribute symbol to its authorised candidates, he said.

The scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on May 7. The last date of withdrawal of names by the candidates is May 9.

The Delhi CEO held a meeting on Saturday evening with the senior officers including deputy commissioners, deputy commissioners of police, Delhi Police special commissioner, and returning officers among others to take stock of preparations for the nomination process, officials added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)