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BJP rift over CM candidate persists
Delhi dream: AAP volunteers hold the key
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EC to pull out all
stops to check bogus voting
Delhi model better than Gujarat’s: CM
Delhi Police ensuring code
of conduct
Campaign to increase voting percentage
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BJP rift over CM candidate persists
New Delhi, October 20 According to the sources in BJP, Goel expressed displeasure to the party in-charge of Delhi polls, Nitin Gadkari, over the nomination of Harshvardhan as the party's chief ministerial candidate. The sources said that the saffron party was a divided house on the issue of announcing its chief ministerial candidate as a majority of the leaders were in favour of the four-time MLA from Krishna Nagar. Harshvardhan has been the Delhi BJP head for two consecutive terms and has a good equation with the RSS. Goel left the meeting in a huff today, threatening the party that he would step down from his post if he was not selected as the chief ministerial candidate, sources said. Goel expressed his displeasure in the presence of party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Goel is considered close to the national president of the BJP, Rajnath Singh. |
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Delhi dream: AAP volunteers hold the key
They have undeniably become the backbone of its election campaigns be it its door-to-door campaigns, "Call Delhi-Citizen Calling Campaign" or a unique network of helplines, thus helping the party to clock to heights in popularity going by the recent pre-poll surveys. At a time when the reported lack of clarity in the model code of conduct has disrupted the canvassing plans of political parties, the AAP banks on its asset of volunteers to expand its reach through its innovative campaigns. The AAP has a trusted base of nearly 10,000-13,000 volunteers who have been executing the party's plans on a day-to-day basis along with nearly 1,10,000 local prabharis who are supposed to keep in touch with the people in their neighbourhood in the 70 legislative constituencies across the city. The figures could vary as more and more people from Delhi as well as other states and abroad are offering their services as volunteers either part-time or have taken a sabbatical from work to contribute to what they feel would help change the corrupt political system. The thirty-two-year-old Surender Jaglan, a sports teacher in a government school at Nabha, Punjab, decided to give one year to the political cause of AAP and came to Delhi in January. "We are standing against a rotten system. The AAP and Arvind Kejriwal has promised to give an alternative. We see a change in the making. I want to give a clean system to my children," said Jaglan who is engaged in assisting people through the party's helpline in Patparganj constituency. He added, "We have been calling people and the results have been encouraging. Besides, we have teams in every locality who are having personal interaction with people." Similarly, discontentment with the current political scenario led Durgesh Pathak of Uttar Pradesh and Yayati of Narela to join AAP's campaigns. "I am an engineer and had been through a lot before finding a job in a private company. I did not want others to suffer and so I joined the AAP in December," said 29-year-old Yayati. Durgesh, a civil services aspirant, has been associated with the AAP since Anna-led anti-graft struggle. He now takes care of the party's door-to-door campaign. "About a month ago, we started the door-to-door campaign and have now reached to over 13 lakh houses in 56 constituencies where our candidates have been declared. The response has been good," said Durgesh. Besides, AAP's volunteers are trying to expand the party's reach to voters through its tele-campaign with fewer than 45 days left for the elections. The unique drive--e+mc3 in which e stands for energy for AAP, m denotes mission and c3 citizen call campaign-through which anyone can contribute his or her services voluntarily without travelling to Delhi by campaigning through calls, urging Delhiites to vote for AAP in the upcoming polls. Since last month when the campaign began, nearly 6,000 people have enrolled themselves as volunteers, said Dilip Pandey, a member of AAP. "There are people who relate to us and our party but they can't come on ground. They want to contribute and make an impact. They join this calling campaign and when they have time, they call up people in Delhi and tell them why they should vote for AAP. People from the US, the UK, Australia, Singapore, etc have joined and shared their experiences with the voters here," added
Pandey. |
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EC to pull out all
stops to check bogus voting
New Delhi, October 20 "Special teams are being formed to check non-existent and bogus voters," a senior official of CEO said. He said the CEO had prepared the electoral rolls "very carefully" and added that efforts will continue to ensure that bogus voters do not vote. Referring to a survey by the DEC last year which found a whopping 15 lakh non-existent voters in Delhi, the official said every effort would be made to ensure fair voting during the December 4 assembly elections. The CEO had conducted a door-to-door survey last year during which it found that there were 15 lakh non-existent voters, including those who may have died or shifted to other places. Over two lakh people have applied for registration as voters for last month and around 50,000 of them have filed their applications in the last one week. Following the rush for inclusion of names in the voters' list, the office has extended the date for accepting applications till November 6. It has also directed booth-level officials to verify the applications before the list for the elections is finalised. According to officials, Delhi has a total of 1.15 crore registered voters and the female-male ratio stands at 804 to 1,000. Giving the details of the last year's survey, DEC officials said a maximum of 56,000 non-existent voters were found in the Karawal constituency, followed by 46,000 in Matiala and 41,000 in Uttam Nagar. In the New Delhi constituency, 34,000 non-existent voters were identified while 17,000 such voters were detected in Gandhi Nagar. The number of non-existent voters found in Ballimaran was 21,000 followed by 22,000 in Mangolpuri, 23,000 in Laxmi Nagar and 31,000 in Greater Kailash, the officials said. |
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Delhi model better than Gujarat’s: CM
New Delhi, October 20 She said that the city of Delhi can boast of having around 24 institutions of higher education including six state level universities commissioned by the Delhi Government during the shortest possible time. The percentage of girls' enrollment is higher in Delhi than that of a number of other states. Expressing views at an annual function of Shiva Co-operative Thrift and Credit Society at Kirari, near Nangloi, Dikshit said "Ours is a prosperous and developed state as we ensured rapid development along with prosperity. We provide monthly pension up to Rs 1,500 to the aged, widows, physically challenged persons." She said that her government has entered into an agreement with the Singapore government to set up a world-class Skill Development Centre at Jaunapur which would make people skilled in various employment-oriented subjects. "This would ensure a better future of the youth. I wonder why Kirari remained neglected, my government would certainly remove this disparity," she added. She referred to the various steps taken to empower women in Delhi and stated that the government has provided a reservation of 50 per cent seats in the civic bodies for women. "We are still committed to developing all parts of the capital city uniformly," she said. |
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Delhi Police ensuring code
of conduct
New Delhi, October 20 The model code of conduct was enforced with an announcement of the assembly elections on October 4. Three flying squads consisting of officials and policemen are on the lookout in each of the 70 constituencies. In case of any breach of the model code of conduct, action is being taken and FIR lodged. Every day, a nine-point report is made in all the districts at the Deputy Commissioner of Police or Additional Commissioner of Police level, which is sent to the police headquarters from where a final report is sent to the State Election Commission. The police are keeping a watch on the printing presses also as they have to print their addresses and contact numbers on each printed material for the election. A number of printing presses that were being run without licences had been sealed in many areas of the Capital. Regular meetings are also being held at the police headquarters in which senior police officers are constantly reviewing the security needs and chalking out plans for peaceful conduct of elections. The authorities concerned have identified about one-fourth of the polling premises as "critical". In 2008 elections, there were 264 such critical premises, but this time around, 634 premises have been identified as critical. A senior police officer said that around 35,000 police personnel would be deployed during the upcoming elections other than central forces and home guards. |
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Campaign to increase voting percentage
New Delhi, October 20 A half marathon was organized today from District Park, Prashant Vihar to Japanese Park, Rohini, to create awareness in this regard. About 5,000 people, including the Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi, Vijay Dev, participated in this run. Besides, national and international sports personalities participated in the event and appealed to the citizens to register themselves in the voter list in order to vote in the elections on December 4. The sportspersons included Olympian Sushil
Kumar, Dronacharya awardee Yashveer Dabas, silver medalist in World Wrestling Championship Amit Dahiya, bronze medalist in World Wrestling Championship Bajrang, Asian Champions in Wrestling Parvesh Mann and Neha Rathi, Asian Judo Champion Meenal Taneja and Harshvardhan, a push-up champion listed in the 'Limca Book of Records'. Some super senior voters of the district, aged 100 years and above, were honoured by CEO Vijay Dev and District Election Officer-Northwest, Udit Prakash Rai for their continued participation in the electoral process and being a source of inspiration to the young voters. |
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New Delhi, October 20