New Delhi, December 7
The electoral fate of three-time Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit, her challengers AAP's Arvind Kejriwal and BJP candidate Vijender Gupta and 87 other candidates will be decided tomorrow when all the EVMs kept inside the locked 14 counting centres will be opened.

The BJP has alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal). The BJP fielded 66 candidates and four seats were given to the SAD Badal. The Congress and AAP contested in all the 70 seats.

The BSP, the third largest party in the last assembly election, fielded candidates in 69 seats, NCP in nine and Samajwadi Party in 27 seats.

A total of 224 independents were also in the fray.

The entry of Kejriwal's AAP has made the Delhi election interesting. All the politicians are eager to see whether AAP wins any seat that contested the election on the issue of corruption in the government.

The stakes in this election are high for Dikshit who mainly highlighted her achievements and development agenda during the campaigning, while Vardhan promised to cut power tariff by 30 per cent and slash vegetable prices within 30 days of coming to power.

The Congress and the BJP both have taken Delhi election as semi-final before the parliamentary election that is to be held next year.

Most exit polls projected BJP as the single largest party in the 70-member Delhi assembly.

While Congress is seeking another term under Sheila Dikshit, BJP and AAP were led by their chief ministerial candidates Vardhan and Kejriwal.

The highest-ever voter turnout of 67 per cent was recorded as Delhiites came out in large numbers to exercise their franchise in the just-concluding election.

New Delhi, December 7
More than 53 per cent voter turn out was recorded at one polling booth in Jangpura constituency here, where repolling was held today.

Out of 813 registered voters, 438 people turned up at the polling booth number 42 at Sarai Kale Khan MCD Primary School and cast their ballot today after the EC announced repoll in the area yesterday due to procedural lapse and defect in the Electronic Voting Machine, said poll officials.

On December 4, 397 has voted at the polling booth. Today, however, the polling went up to 438.

The voter turnout recorded 269 men and 169 women exercise their franchise between 8 am and 5 pm.

Yesterday, the District Election Officer (DEO) of New Delhi A Abhiyankar, had received instructions from the Chief Electoral Office to hold a repoll in the area.

The DEO said public announcements were made in the area through loud speakers, SMSs and phone calls alerting the residents about the repolling. — PTI

New Delhi, December 7
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has written to Defence Minister AK Antony complaining about the rising instances of "unilateral intervention" by the Ministry of Urban Development (UD) in the key matters related to the Delhi Metro.

In a strongly worded letter to Antony, Dikshit listed several instances where the UD Ministry had taken key decisions without keeping the state government, which is an equal partner, in the loop.

Dikshit told Antony, who is chairman of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on matters related to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), that such actions of the ministry may sometimes go against the interest of the DMRC and the Government of the National Territory of Delhi and has the potential of adversely affecting the overall functioning of the DMRC.

In her letter, Dikshit said decisions related to the DMRC should be taken by the ministry only after consultation with the Delhi Government since it was an equal partner.

Sources said Dikshit has complained in her letter that on the issue related to the stoppage of services on the Airport Metro line and the related dispute between the DMRC and the private concessionaire, an inquiry was ordered by the ministry without making any reference to it.

She said that after the inquiry, the report was finalised and sent to the Central Vigilance Commission, again without taking the state government into confidence. Consequently, a sub-committee was formed by the DMRC board to consider this inquiry report, she added.

Dikshit said while initially the sub-committee had two members each from the state and the Central Government, subsequently more members were co-opted and the number of Central Government members in the sub-committee increased. This was done without the consent of her government.

A major tender for supplying of Metro coaches was finalised by the DMRC board, which was challenged by two bidders in the High Court. She said the High Court held the DMRC's tender process as fair.

She said that despite this, the ministry went ahead with an inquiry committee without taking consent of the Delhi Government.

Sources said that in her letter, Dikshit also complained that on the question of termination payment to the concessionaire of the airport line, the ministry began the process of taking the matter to the Central Government without bringing her government into confidence.

New Delhi, December 7
Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel said here today that the saffron party will organize a run for 2 km on the death anniversary of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel on December 15. The race will be called "Run for Unity" and the starting point will be 11, Ashoka Road, the central office of the BJP.

He said that this run for unity has been organized with the objective of highlighting the work of the construction of a statue of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel as the "Statue of Unity", the highest statue in the world, which will be inaugurated by the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

Goel said that a national mission has been started to collect iron from the farmers for the construction of the statue. The Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, and other Central and state party leaders will participate in the run.

Leaders of all the districts have been instructed that they should organize programmes in their areas in connection with the run. This may include essay writing competition, debate and painting competition in schools and colleges so that the new generation may have more knowledge about Sardar Patel.

New Delhi, December 7
The Election Commission has detected 23 cases of paid news against 16 candidates who include Revenue Minister Arvinder Singh and Mukesh Sharma, Parliamentary Secretary to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

"The EC will further interact with the Press Council of India and the appropriate broadcasting authority for action against the media houses," said Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev.

Two instances of paid news have been found against Congress MLA Sumesh Shokeen, who is contesting from the Matiala constituency. A sum of Rs 62,650 has been added to his poll expenses.

The Delhi Chief Electoral Office (CEO) has passed orders to include Rs 24,407 and Rs 39,061 in the poll expenses of Singh and Sharma respectively. Singh is contesting from Gandhi Nagar while Sharma is a sitting MLA from the Uttam Nagar constituency.

A sum of Rs 19,582 has been added to the poll expenses of BJP councillor and candidate from the Matiala constituency, Rajesh Gehlot.

Six instances of paid news have been found against the BJP candidate from Tilak Nagar, Rajiv Babbar, and Rs 20,621 have been added to his poll expenses.

Out of 16 candidates, six are from Congress, eight from BJP and two from BSP.

The other BJP candidates against whom the order has been passed are Neel Daman Khatri (Narela-Rs 17,500) and Jai Prakash (Sadar Bazar-Rs 4,893), Manoj Kumar Shokeen (Nangloi Jat-Rs 10,710), Subhash Sachdeva (Moti Nagar-Rs 21,834), Parvesh Sahib Singh (Mehrauli-Rs 8,223) and Pawan Sharma (Uttam Nagar-Rs 6,116).

The Congress candidates include Sushil Gupta ( Moti Nagar-Rs 9,786), Amit Malik (Narela-expenses not mentioned) and Ashok Kumar Jain ( Delhi Cantt-Rs 6,476)

The BSP candidates are Dheeraj Kumar Tokas (R K Puram-Rs 18,019) and Md Saleem Saify (Nangloi Jat-Rs 9,817) against whom two cases were detected.

As far action against the electronic/print media is concerned, Dev said a detailed report would be sent to the Election Commission after the electoral process gets over.

New Delhi, December 7
A man, who posed as an astrologer to hide his identity, worked with TV channels and had even been a corporator in Meerut, was arrested along with his accomplice by the Delhi Police yesterday from near Aali village on Mathura Road on the charges of murder.

The accused were identified as Nazakat Ali, alias Acharya Pandit Rajiv Sharma, and his accomplice Mehraj.

The police yesterday received a tip-off that the accused, involved in the murder of one Bilal in a shootout at Meerut in November, would come from Sarita Vihar in a Mahindra Scorpio bearing a UP number. A trap was laid near Aali picket and the police started checking vehicles. As an informer indicated, a Mahindra Scorpio vehicle which was coming from the Sarita Vihar side was stopped with the help of barricades at the picket.

Two persons got out of the vehicle. They were questioned. The driver disclosed his name as Mehraj while the second person introduced himself as Acharya Pandit Rajiv Sharma. When he was questioned about his real name, they tried to flee, but were overpowered by the police team.

They also admitted to their involvement in the murder case at Meerut.

The accused Nazakat Ali also disclosed that he is a graduate from Sridhar University, district Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan). In 2000, he was a top athlete of Meerut. Subsequently in 2007, he joined 'News One' channel as bureau chief for western UP. Later in 2008, he was elected as 'Nigam Parshad' of ward number 69, Meerut, UP on the ticket of BSP. In 2009, he joined 'Azad News' channel. It is during that time, he met Bilal and soon started their astrological racket. He with the help of Bilal posed as Jyotish Acharya, resided in different places for three-four months in UP. After cheating the gullible people, they would run away from the spot. Later, they fell out over the distribution of money. Then Nazakat along with his accomplices Mehraj and others planned to kill Bilal. On November 28, Nazakat shot Bilal dead.

Thereafter Nazakat along with Mehraj was living at Vasundhara, Ghaziabad, assuming the identity of Acharya Pandit Rajiv Sharma. As their luck ran out, they were arrested on Friday when they were going to Faridabad.