New Delhi, September 11
In an attempt to monitor the election expenditure, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has made it mandatory for all the candidates to open a separate bank account.

The account will keep the details of the expenditure incurred by the candidates or their election agents, between the date on which he was nominated and the date of declaration of the result.

"Every candidate will have to open a separate bank account for making transactions of the receipt and payment for election purposes. The details of such accounts will be submitted to the Returning Officer (RO) at the time of nomination," said Vijay Dev, the Chief Electoral Officer.

The measure would be taken for the first time in the national Capital. Also, the total of the said expenditure shall not exceed the prescribed limit which is fixed at Rs 14 lakh.

"The election expenditure, allowed under the law for electioneering such as expenses connected with public meetings, rallies, posters, vehicles, advertisements in print or electronic media, will have to be incurred from the dedicated bank account," said Dev.

The Election Officer and the RO will inspect the account at least thrice during the election period. The Assistant Expenditure Officer will maintain shadow expenditure register simultaneously in respect of each candidate for all kinds of expenditure made by the candidates, which will then be compared by the details maintained by the candidate.

Dev said that the candidate will have to submit the expenditure details along with the invoices to the District Election Officer (DEO) within 30 days from the date of declaration of results. "Failure to lodge the account of election expenses with the election officer may result in disqualification of the candidate," he said.

The DEO will also notify the rates of different kinds of items that can be used by the candidates during the campaign period.

These rates will be used for comparison with the expenditure given by the candidate.

New Delhi, September 11
The stage is set for assembly elections in Delhi as the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) shared the measures that will be taken for the first time not only to ensure free and transparent elections but to nail the violators of the model code of conduct.

With a view to increasing the voter turnout and putting an end to bogus voting, the CEO will introduce a slew of measures like Google mapping of polling station, videography of sensitive booths, absentee-shifted-dead (ASD) list, inclusion of more than 7,000 homeless on the voters' list, expenditure monitoring teams, preparation of online data base, usage of D-duplication software to detect errors and repetition of voters and training of senior police officers.

The CEO, Vijay Dev, said that the polling for the Delhi Assembly elections will be done with 100 per cent photo identity cards. The total voters after publishing the final roll has reached 1,14,88,752.

The CEO will prepare a polling stationwise list of cases of duplicate, replicated or expired voters identified after the final roll. It will be supplied to the presiding officers on the day of the poll so that such voters can be allowed to vote only after proper verification.

Flying squads have been formed under each assembly constituency comprising sector officers, police officials and videographers teams in order to track illegal cash transaction or any distribution of liquor, bribe, etc.

Dev said that the electoral office is exploring the possibility of installing video cameras at 2,603 polling stations.

Slips bearing the voter's photograph will be distributed to help the voter know in which polling station he is enrolled. The slips will be distributed through the booth level officers and other district administration functionaries.

The affidavits filed by the candidates along with their nomination papers will be put on the notice board and the website so that the voters know their criminal antecedents, movable assets, liabilities, education, etc.

The election office has also, for the first time, completed the mammoth task of preparing a data base of election-related functionaries and polling officials through online application software from all the departments of state and central governments.

New Delhi, September 11
In a strategy to woo the minority votes, the BJP may increase the number of Muslim candidates in the constituencies where Muslim voters are the deciding factor, sources in the party said.

The party is thinking that the constituencies where the ratio of Muslim voters is 40 per cent, Muslim activists should be given tickets. Delhi has five such constituencies — Okhla, Turkman Gate, Ballimaran, Seelampur and Mustafabad — all have Muslim MLAs.

According to the sources, the party is also doing a survey in the constituencies where minority votes have a ratio of 25 per cent. There are a few constituencies like Babarpur, Krishna Nagar, Sangam Vihar where Muslims are in good numbers but alone they are not a deciding factor. In these constituencies, the party will try to woo the minority electorate.

The head of the Minority Morcha Cell of the party, Abdul Rashid, said, "We are not demanding tickets for minorities. The party will decide itself about the distribution of the tickets."

The state party chief Vijay Goel said as of now it is not decided. The party will consider the winning candidates whosoever they are.

In the last assembly election, the BJP had given tickets to two Muslim candidates - Irfan from Okhla and Talat Sultana from Matia Mahal. Both had lost the elections. But this time, Irfan is sure that the BJP may appear stronger as the voters are not satisfied with the performance of the Congress in Delhi.

The other reasons for the BJP's strong position may be the joining of a senior Gujjar leader Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and candidate of the Aam Admi Party who will make a dent in the Congress vote bank. The constituency has Gujjar votes at Jasola village, Madanpur Khadar and Kanchan Kunj.

New Delhi, September 11
Violations of the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines by the candidates of the Congress-supported NSUI and the RSS's young wing ABVP during this year's Delhi University polls could cost them cancellation of their candidatures.

As taking cognisance of three such complaints regarding flouting of poll norms by wasteful use of printed materials, the Delhi University Electoral Officer, Dr Ashok Vohra, today issued show cause notice to the eight candidates of NSUI and ABVP contesting for the top four posts. They are supposed to reply within 24 hours.

"I've issued show cause notice to eight people of NSUI and ABVP. I received complaints and took suo motu cognisance of them. In fact I saw printed pamphlets of candidates being distributed and with the newspapers also. It looks the candidates are highly mistaken that this will help them win elections. I have requested students not to elect such candidates who spoil paper and environment," Dr Vohra said.

Adding that the disciplinary action is bound to be taken if anybody is found guilty, he said, "Even if they are elected, they may not be allowed to retain their posts and their candidatures will be cancelled. I have sent the notice by email and if no reply is received, then action would be taken."

The officer said, "We wish to send a strong signal that students cannot take the Lyngdoh committee recommendations for granted."

During the day, there were many, such as AISA's Sunny Kumar who had objected to such show of money and violation of poll norms with the campuses, north and south filled with printed posters and stickers of candidates of NSUI and ABVP. There were many who could be seen throwing pamphlets while driving on and around the campuses.

Those who have been served notices are NSUI's Vishal Chaudhary, a first-year Hindi student from Rajdhani College, for the president's post, vice-presidential candidate is the first-year Sanskrit student Kapil Sharma, general secretary candidate Karishma Thakur and joint secretary candidate Kushank Khari while those of ABVP are M.A. Buddhist Studies student Aman Awana (president candidate), Utkarsh Chaudhry (vice-president), secretary candidate, Kirori Mal College student Anshu Lakra and M.A. Buddhist Studies student Raju Rawat who has been fielded for the joint secretary's post.

New Delhi, September 11
Two days to go for the student union polls of the two major universities in the national Capital and once again the developments pertaining to the repeated incidents of violence, vandalism and police involvement that have unfolded in run-up to the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) elections stand in sharp contrast to what Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) polls' landscape looks to be conveying.

At JNU, as always it is the performance of candidates during the presidential debate that took centre stage while on the other side clash between the members of the Congress's student wing National Students' Union of India (NSUI) and RSS's Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) made news on DU north campus.

During the day today, there were a couple of incidents of clash involving the supporters and candidates of NSUI and ABVP at Kirori Mal College, Rajdhani College and in front of Hansraj College where after a verbal duel between the two groups during campaigning, some hooligans carrying countrymade pistols, allegedly at the behest of NSUI damaged two cars belonging to Aman Awana and Anshu Lakra, the ABVP candidates for the post of president and secretary.

According to ABVP's Delhi secretary Rohit Chahal, boys of NSUI tried to attack his party's candidates and even misbehaved with Anshu.

"NSUI is bringing people from outside to the campus and trying to intimidate our candidates. Last evening also, they tried to misbehave and I had to intervene to protect them and in the end, I was taken to the local police station and detained from 6-10 pm. The police too are not taking any action and even yesterday, the cop called up an NSUI worker to register a compliant against me. The administration has given them a free hand," said Rohit.

Similarly, arguments were exchanged at Law Faculty while at Rajdhani College in west Delhi, there were people with the banners of NSUI who allegedly smashed the glasses of car of another ABVP candidate Utkarsh Choudhary during campaigning.

Saket Bahuguna of ABVP said, "Our candidates were threatened and their cars were damaged and two cops on the spot even chased about five of them at Hansraj College. Two others were also manhandled at Rajdhani and one of them had to be taken to AIIMS with eye injury and an MLC was made." The matter was confirmed by the security department of the university.

While the cops of the Morris Nagar police station denied the allegations, NSUI spokesperson Amrish Ranjan Pandey called them rumours.

"These are all rumours and nothing but ABVP's propaganda. Instead they had hit our party general secretary Nikhil on campus and last night, they were arrested also for assaulting our members," he countered.