New Delhi, March 22
With the nomination for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi coming to a close today, as many as 206 candidates, including prominent figures Congress' Union Minister Kapil Sibal and Ajay Maken, BJP's Dr Harsh Vardhan and MLA Ramesh Bidhuri and AAP's Rajmohan Gandhi, Prof Anand Kumar being a few names who are in the fray for seven constituencies here.

Besides the Congress sitting MPs, there are many first timers and star candidates such as Ashutosh of the AAP whose most of the candidates are trying their luck in poll waters for the first time and BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi, who is contesting from the New Delhi constituency.

On the last day of nominations, among the prominent candidates who filed their nomination papers today are Union Minister Krisna Tirath from North West, Bhojpuri actor-singer Manoj Tiwari, who is contesting on a BJP ticket from North East, Congress' Sajjan Kumar's brother Ramesh Kumar and BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri.

Union Minister Krishna Tirath (58) today declared a total of movable assets worth approximately Rs 1.11 crore, besides her spouse's Rs nearly 92 lakh and self-acquired immovable property of worth around Rs 1.13 crore, apart from her husband's approximately Rs 2.05 crore. She owns WagonR and has declared Rs 2.5 Lakh cash in hand while her spouse has Rs 3 lakh.

BJP's nominee Ramesh Bidhuri declared a total of Rs 10.64 crore movable assets under his and his spouse and children's name. This includes cash of Rs 1 lakh in his hand and his wife has Rs 60,000. He owns a Scorpio and under the immovable head he declared two acre and 1.25 acre agricultural land at Basai Khadar and Loharwaari villages in UP of worth Rs 1 lakh and Rs 60,000, respectively, under his and his wife's name. He and his wife also possess commercial buildings at Sangam Vihar, besides their house at Tughlakabad.

As per the affidavit of Ramesh Kumar, he has movable assets worth Rs 6.63 lakh excluding a Honda City car while the value of his immovable property, including agricultural lands and commercial and parental property, stands at Rs 2.35 crore.

Manoj Tiwari possesses eight houses - three in Mumbai, two each in Delhi and Varanasi and one in Thane along with two agricultural and non-agricultural lands, has assets worth over 19 crore.

He has five cars - Audi Q7, Innova, Mercedes Benz, Honda City and a Fortuner - totally worth Rs 91.4 lakh. Sahab Singh Chauhan also filed his nomination as covering candidate for Tiwari.

Bollywood actor and Trinamool Congress candidate Bishwajit Chatterjee filed his nomination papers from the New Delhi constituency.

According to the affidavit, he has assets worth Rs five lakh, including Rs 2 lakh cash in hand and jewellery worth Rs 3 lakh. He does not own a car. His house at Juhu Scheme is under his wife's name and is worth Rs 3 crore. Even as the final figure is yet to be released, Election Commission officials said 307 nominations have been received from 206 candidates. In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, 221 candidates had filed nominations while 160 had contested the election.

New Delhi, March 22
Two men posing as power distribution company employees have been arrested for allegedly murdering a 45-year-old woman, Inderjeet Kaur, with a hammer after gaining entry into her house in Uttam Nagar, West Delhi, with a notice for disconnecting electricity supply on Thursday, a police officer said today.

The accused have been identified as Agam Kohli (21) and Gagandeep (23). Agam was pursuing Bachelor of Arts through correspondence from Delhi University and worked with a placement agency in Uttam Nagar. Gagandeep, a school dropout, used to sell clothes at a weekly market in Uttam Nagar.

The officer said that the accused entered the house to commit robbery. The police claimed to have recovered a BSES (a power distribution company) electricity disconnection notice, a laptop, a jewellery box containing a necklace and two earrings, victim's mobile phone, a watch and the hammer from the accused.

Agam said that about two years ago he used to work with a placement agency, which was run from the first floor of the building where the murder took place. The company is no longer operational, but Agam with Gagandeep used to visit the building for smoking cannabis.

Investigators said that the accused were allegedly aware that the apartment on the fourth floor of the building was occupied by Arvinder Singh (32) and Amarpreet (27), a working couple. "Agam and Gagandeep were aware that the couple's two-year-old son was looked after by a nanny (Inderjeet) and expected cash and jewellery in the house," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Ranvir Singh.

On Thursday, the two men allegedly went to the building for smoking cannabis and found a BSES notice regarding disconnection of electricity supply for non payment of bill on the ground floor apartment. The apartment is not occupied. "They both then planned to use the notice to gain entry into Arvinder and Amarpreet's house," the DCP added.

They went to the house claiming to be BSES employees and asked Indejeet to open the main door. Indejeet, refused to open the door, as she knew that there was no outstanding bill.

They then disconnected the electricity supply from an MCB box located at the stairs outside the house. They were carrying a screw driver and a hammer in a bag to appear like BSES employees.

On the pretext of handing over the electricity disconnection notice, the two men gained entry into the apartment, where Inderjeet and the two-year-old boy were present. Agam allegedly hit Inderjeet on her head with the hammer. Gagandeep took the baby to another room while he was crying, but the boy did not stop crying and he was also allegedly hit with a hammer on his head.

"The accused then ransacked the house," the DCP said.

New Delhi, March 22
Three members of the Aam Aadmi Party - its candidate from the Kalkaji Assembly constituency Dharmaveer Singh and two others former municipal councillors, Dr. Rajender Sonkar and Mahender Kaur Narula, who joined the AAP quitting BJP before the state assembly elections - have resigned from party and today joined BJP flanked by supporters.

Announcing about their joining the BJP, chairman of the BJP Delhi unit Lok Sabha elections management and campaign committee Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra said that due to negative working style and betrayal by the AAP, people of Delhi are feeling to have been cheated.

Singh and Narula are the former councillors and senior BJP leaders Jagdish Mamgain has played important role in their joining the BJP.

Prof. Malhotra said that after the Lok Sabha elections, an honest and accountable government will be formed under the leadership of Narendra Modi.

"The poor and innocent people who joined the AAP with the hope of change of system are very much disappointed. The people of Delhi are disillusioned with the AAP which is a B team of the Congress," one of these members said.

New Delhi, March 22
The Delhi unit of Janata Dal (Secular) today merged itself into the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Led by its state president and chairperson of the All India Muslim Ekta Manch Haji Ikram Hasssan, hundreds of JD (S) workers were welcomed into the AAP by party leaders Prof Anand Kumar and Dilip Pandey here.

Apart from the JD(S), a large number of Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) and Congress workers from the Delhi North East parliamentary constituency also joined the AAP and pledged their support for the party candidate Prof Anand Kumar.

Among those who joined the party included JD(S) Delhi unit vice-president Haji Mohammad Yamin, secretaries Afzal Siddiqui, Haji Muteja and Kishan Lal. The JD(S) women's wing president Sukshma Singh and secretary Sahiba Naqvi, spokesperson Shafiq Mohammad and vice-president Afzal Siddiqui also became the AAP members.

Addressing the workers from Gokulpuri, Badbarpur and Mustaffabad assembly segments of the North East parliamentary constituency, Prof Kumar and Pandey said the AAP is willing to welcome political activists with a clean track record into its fold who are ready to work for the eradication of corruption and communalism from society.

Prof Kumar said the goal of the AAP in the Lok Sabha elections is to ensure that honest MPs willing to fight dynastic politics and criminalisation of politics are sent to the Lok Sabha.

The JD(S), BSP and Congress members, who joined the AAP, said that they are impressed with the functioning of the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi, which fulfiled its election promises of bringing down the electricity bills and providing free water to the residents.

New Delhi, March 21
To overcome the electoral loss in the last parliamentary elections held in 2009 when it had lost all the seven seats in Delhi, this time the BJP has launched campaigning in an impressive manner, changing party structure by appointing new president of the Delhi unit, instilling feeling to change government at national level and projecting Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate.

As part of campaigning, the party has given a slogan, "Ek note, kamal per vote". The party has got manufactured 19,000 boxes written with this slogan. The boxes were to be distributed among the block presidents with a purpose to get them moved in constituencies and number of coins dropped in the boxes would give an estimate of votes the party would be polled. But sources in the party say that because of the infighting in the Delhi unit about 4,000 boxes could not be distributed.

"Namo chai" and "Chai Chaupal" are other poll campaigns.

Besides, the party recently had meetings with its mahila morcha and minority cell, asking them to woo the women voters with the issue like safety, improvement in law and order situation, etc.

The party has asked its minority cell to campaign among the Muslim voters that had left the Congress to the AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections.

Saying that the AAP is a "sinking ship" and the Congress is a "corrupt party", Delhi unit chief of the BJP Harsh Vardhan said, "Our party workers are active on all 11,763 polling booths. They are meeting voters. The election campaigning is being done well. I hope we will win all the seven seats of Parliament in Delhi."

After the resignation of former Delhi unit chief Vijay Goel, there is a lack of enthusiasm among party workers, though Dr Vardhan denies it.

Situation was same in the last parliamentary election when the BJP had lost all the seven seats in Delhi.

The prime reason for infighting in the Delhi unit could be declaration of Dr Vardhan as chief ministerial candidate. The then Delhi unitpresident, Vijay Goel, had opposed party's decision.

The sources said party workers who belong to anti-Vardhan camp stopped working in the election. Party election in charge in Delhi Nitin Gadkari was also informed about anti-party activities of a certain camp. He had warned of serious action against them, but all in vain.

According to the sources, following assembly elections result in December 2013 Narendra Modi had asked the party high command for appointing new person as Delhi unit president. Thereafter, Dr Vardhan has been given charge.

In the 2009 elections, the BJP had direct fight with the Congress. But this time three parties are there - the BJP, Congress and the AAP.

Taking in view that fight is between the BJP and the AAP, the saffron party is mainly targeting the AAP. The BJP is not giving weight to the Congress in Delhi as in assembly elections it was defeated badly just winning the seats out of 70.

New Delhi, March 22
A 32-year-old man, who was allegedly depressed over not receiving a ticket for contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Karnataka, attempted to commit suicide by consuming poison outside the BJP headquarters in Delhi today.

The man has been identified as C R Gowda, who hails from Karnataka. He is a BJP worker. The police said that he is undergoing treatment at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Central Delhi.

"He was upset after he was denied a ticket for the polls," said a police officer.

However, the exact reason behind Godwa's step will be clear after his statement is recorded by the police. The police had not registered a case until filing this report.

New Delhi, March 22
A 58-year-old man, who is the son of a former IAS officer, has been arrested for allegedly claiming to be an IPS officer posted as Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Mizoram and cheating divorcees and unmarried women of their money and proposing them over matrimonial websites, a police officer said today.

The man has been identified as Ajay Singh Yadav. He was caught yesterday while he was on his way to Sohna in Haryana. He was travelling in a Honda City car having a red beacon and siren installed on it. He allegedly tried misleading the police by claiming to be a DIG of the Intelligence Bureau. But upon interrogation he allegedly confessed to cheating women over matrimonial websites.

The police also caught Ajay's driver, Amit Chouhan (29). "He was assisting Ajay in the crime by providing him fictitious mobile phone connections," said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.

"Ajay was arrested after a businesswoman from Kanpur filed a complaint alleging that she had been duped of Rs 24.5 lakh by a man named Rajiv Yadav on the pretext of marriage. They had met each other through a matrimonial site in November 2013," said Ravindra.

The police learnt that Ajay was posing as Rajiv. After regular conversations over the phone, the woman and Ajay decided to marry on December 13. Ajay allegedly deceived her by saying that his parents had died and his brother was a Brigadier in the Indian Army, who had been killed by terrorists in a bomb blast in Jammu and Kashmir. He had also claimed to be posted at a sensitive zone in Mizoram.

On December 10, he informed the woman that he had lost his ATM card and he needed money, as he was hospitalised after being shot at during a police operation.

"He promised her that the money will be reimbursed by the Central government. He made her pay Rs 24.5 lakh. After receiving the money he stopped taking her calls," said the officer.

Ajay's father was an IAS officer in Delhi.

New Delhi, March 22
A cyclothon, "Pedal for the Planet", the run-up event to the Earth Hour-2014,a WWF's global campaign to raise awareness and inspire individual action on climate change, was organised in Delhi today

This year the Earth Hour is scheduled for March 29 between 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm.

TV presenter and host Rannvijay flagged off the cyclothon, which was supported by Canara HSBC, Oriental Life Insurance and TI Cycles of India, where he spoke about his association with the cause and invited citizens of the city to come forward and show their support for the campaign.