New Delhi, April 8
Stage is set for the Lok Sabha polls in the national Capital on April 10 with 1.27 crore voters which include over 3.37 lakh first-time voters. A total of 150 candidates are in the fray.

Polling will be held in 11,763 polling stations out of which 327 have been declared critical and 90 hyper-critical.

Encouraged by the "historic" turnout in the recent Delhi Assembly elections, Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev today said he was hopeful of even better polling percentage in this election and appealed to Delhi residents to come out and vote.

"We have completed all the preparations to conduct free and fair election on April 10. This time around polling hours have been increased by two hours and it will be conducted from 7 am to 6 pm," Dev said at a press conference.

Nearly 50,000 security personnel, apart from 161 flying squads of the police and video surveillance teams will be deployed as part of elaborate preparations to ensure fair and peaceful polls to seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.

The Election Commission has this time done away with the provision of voter cards and voter slips being mandatory.

For the first time, Delhi residents will be able to exercise their franchise even if they do not have electors' photo identity card (voter card), but have their names registered in the electoral roll.

"Besides voter cards, as many as 11 other photo identity documents such as passport, driving licence, service identity card issued by the Central and state governments, PAN card, Aadhar card, smart card issued by RGI under NPR, health insurance smart card issued by the Ministry of Labour, MNREGA job card, pension document with photograph and authenticated photo voter slip issued by the election can be used by voters to establish their identity," said Dev.

He added that this provision was not there during the last time and voter cards and voter slips were mandatory to cast vote.

"Voters can check whether their names are registered in electoral roll or not through our website or by sending an SMS to designated numbers. Those who have applied for the voter card, but have not received it so far can also use those 11 documents," Dev added.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the overall voting percentage stood at 52.3 per cent, which increased to 66 per cent in the 2013 Delhi Assembly election.

Dev said 35,000 personnel of the Delhi police, 4,000 home guards and 40 companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed to conduct peaceful elections.

Apart from that, 161 flying squads of the Delhi Police, static surveillance teams and video surveillance teams are active.

New Delhi, April 8
In South Delhi constituency as the high-voltage campaign of BJP, whose star campaigner Navjot Singh Sidhu canvassed for his party candidate Ramesh Bidhuri today, came to an end, the pitch of allegations and counter-allegations between Bidhuri and AAP's Col (Retd) Devender Sehrawat grew shriller.

Col Sehrawat's camp and supporters alleged that in the Vasant Kunj area, BJP workers were seen distributing pamphlets with "defamatory" content against the AAP's South Delhi during the day while in Rajokri Village, they accused the booth level officer of violating poll norms by distributing pamphlets in support of Bidhuri along with the voter slips.

Col Sehrawat's associate Amit Sharma also alleged that at D-7 Community Centre at Vasant Kunj, the BJP candidate was holding a public meeting even after 5 pm in violation of model code of conduct.

"In Rajokri, a booth level officer was seen giving voters slips along with Bidhuri's pamphlets last evening and today. This is nothing new as even in the previous Delhi Assembly elections, we had seen on-duty officials being influenced by the political parties," said AAP supporter Col MP Sen.

However, all these allegations were rubbished by the BJP candidate who said the AAP knows that it is out of the race and so it is doing nothing but spreading "rumours".

While AAP said that BJP members are resorting to all sorts of wrongful measures to "harass and intimidate" its volunteers at all levels while adding that all that is nothing but a retaliatory action against Ramesh Bidhuri's "criminal past" made public by AAP.

According to Col Sehrawat, the BJP candidate tried to implicate him and his party volunteers and filed a false complaint in the EC office for carrying objectionable matter against their opponent in their vehicle.

"It all started on April 4 when some AAP members, while campaigning for Col Sehrawat, were roughed up by BJP members. They fraudulently shoved some 350 pamphlets carrying defamatory matter against Bidhuri in their vehicle. The vehicle was impounded later but we were not given any receipt. We approached the returning officer but to no avail," said South Delhi AAP members.

They contested Bidhuri's allegations as baseless and FIRs as "politically motivated".

"The BJP workers have started maligning our candidate Col Sehrawat," added Col Sen.

Col Sehrawat in his reply to the show cause notice served yesterday denied all allegations against him and his volunteers in front of the Court of Special Executive Magistrate, Saket.

New Delhi, April 8
Sibal reminds voters of development work Considering that the Muslim-dominated areas are their vote bank, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party today on the last day of campaigning concentrated on the minority areas in Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency while the BJP did a road show in the posh localities under the leadership of cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu.

The Congress candidate, Kapil Sibal, who is a sitting MP in Chandni Chowk, managed hundreds of rickshaws and a few autorickshaws with banners "Aapka Apna Sibal - Congress ko vote dekar kaamyab banain". He held a road show from the gate No. one of Jama Masjid to Delhi Gate appealing to the voters to exercise their franchise in his favour. Women were in autorickshaws and cycle rickshaws while men marched the narrow lanes of walled city via Matia Mahal, Chitli Qabar, Suiwalan and Tiraha Barram Khan, causing a jam from Machhali Bazar to Chawri Bazar.

AAP focuses on change

The AAP candidate, Ashutosh, did a road show in Ballimaran. A long serpentine line of party supporters started a march from Delhi Gate to Ballimaran with placards urging people to vote for the AAP.

The placards had big photographs of the party candidate Ashutosh.

The marchers did not raise any slogans. When asked why they are supporting AAP, the participants said, "We need a change. We have voted Kapil Sibal to power twice, but he never visited the area to see its sanitary and road conditions. Now he is visiting which is useless. We have made up our mind to vote for the AAP candidate."

While talking to people, Ashutosh appealed to them to give him a chance to work for the citizens.

When Kejriwal was doing a road show recently for Ashutosh, he had said that if his party won the election, it would be a victory of the local people.

The AAP supporters did not have any vehicles for the road show. They simply marched in the area.

Vardhan show stars Sidhu

On the last day of campaigning, the BJP candidate Dr Harsh Vardhan brought cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu who staged a road show in Wazirpur, Kanhaiya Nagar, Keshavpuram and Bharat Nagar.

In an open jeep, Sidhu asked the electorate to vote for the BJP candidate so that the Modi-led government could be set up at centre. The local citizens erected stages at various places to welcome him. The Sikh community presented Saropas to Vardhan and Sidhu.

In the Sadar Assembly constituency, the Vaishya community accorded a grand welcome to Vardhan and resolved to make him victorious. President of Vaishya Sabha Raj Kumar Gupta and other senior leaders of the community like Lala Jagannath, Tarsim Garg, Hari Bansal, Jai Prakash were present on the occasion. They appealed to the community to make the BJP candidates of all the seven seats victorious.

Vardhan had a direct talk with the voters in Gandhi Vihar, Burari Park.

New Delhi, April 8
Sikh voters in the West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency are almost 9.23 per cent. If they exercise their vote en bloc, they may be a deciding factor, but they are divided. Leadership is also divided in the area.

Ajeet Singh, a senior official in Ramgaria Cooperative Bank, said that 60 per cent Sikhs in the constituency are divided, 30 per cent who are Gursikh favour AAP candidate Jarnail Singh while 10 per cent voters are going towards the BJP and the Congress. Sikhs have sympathy with AAP candidate Jarnail as it is who had flung a shoe in a press conference addressed by the Union Minister, P Chidambram, expressing anger against the Congress government for not giving justice to 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims.

Amarjeet Singh, president of 17th Block, Subhash Nagar, a segment in the constituency, said Sikh voters are in favour of the BJP, candidate Parvesh Verma, who is son of the late Chief Minister of Delhi, Sahib Singh Verma. However, Parvesh did not visit door-to-door in the Sikh-dominated areas. As far as Jarnail is concerned, he has not done any social work in the community. The Congress candidate, Mahabal Mishra, is a sitting MP, but the voters are not happy with the Congress due to inflation and various scams.

JP Singh of Sukhmani Sewa Society is of the view that the community has not recovered from the wounds of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. When the voters think of the riots, they lean towards Jarnail Singh.

Oberio Singh, a social worker, said that AAP's resignation from the Delhi government has angered Sikh voters who do not want to vote for the Congress either due to rampant corruption in the government.

Bhupinder Singh, secretary of the Akali Dal in Fateh Nagar, said he had not yet made up his mind to support any party in the election.

Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), Delhi, president and DSGMC president Manjit Singh (GK) said Sikhs should support the party that could work out their problems at the national as well as local levels. Only the alliance of the BJP and the SAD is a solution to the problems. "I am hopeful that the issues of 1984 riots victims would be resolved if the BJP comes to power," he said.

While the SAD (Delhi) president, Paramjit Singh Sarna, said the rally organised by the BJP and Akali Dal at Fateh Nagar yesterday indicated that Sikhs had distanced themselves from the BJP. There was no rush in the rally. The Congress has developed the area and deserves the vote.

New Delhi, April 8
Delhi Congress today wrote a letter to the Election Commission to deploy more security personnel in the minority-dominated areas, expressing concern that the BJP may create social unrest on the polling day to polarize votes.

"The BJP could create social unrest on the polling day, and therefore the Pradesh Congress has written to the Election Commission to deploy more security personnel in the minority-dominated areas," said DPCC president Arvinder Singh.

Singh, along with CLP leader Haroon Yusuf and chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma, while talking to reporters at a joint press conference said that the BJP has totally accepted defeat and that is why it first cancelled its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's rally and then his 3D publicity campaign.

"And because of this, we are afraid that the BJP and the RSS may resort to rumours on the polling day to spread social unrest and polarize votes. This is why we have demanded more security in the minority areas," said Sharma.

The leaders also claimed that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar have chickened out of Narendra Modi's election campaign as they feared that they would not be able to match the tremendous response which the rallies of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi garnered in the national Capital.

"First Modi's Monday rally and then the 3D publicity campaign was not cancelled due to technical reasons, but the party feared lack of support from the people. The Modi bubble has totally burst in Delhi," said Singh.

New Delhi, April 8
Over 25,000 litres of illicit liquor worth Rs 38 lakh has been seized by Delhi Election Commission ahead of April 10 Lok Sabha election here, besides registration of 239 FIRs and arrest of 248 persons for it.

Moreover, Rs 43,38,800 of cash has been seized by poll officials under "black and unaccounted" money category. The seizures have been made by EC's Static Surveillance Teams, Delhi Police, Excise and Income Tax departments among others.

So far, 2,327 full bottles, 1,570 half and 77,083 quarters of country liquor have been seized. Likewise, 1,381 full bottles, 40,185 half and 824 quarters of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) have been seized.

"The EC has identified 179 locations under 'expenditure sensitive pockets (ESPs)', which are susceptible in terms of flow of illicit liquor and black money.

"Under ESPs, 19 such locations including colonies and slum clusters are in Chandni Chowk, 30 in East Delhi, 47 in New Delhi, 23 in North West Delhi, 17 in West Delhi and 26 in South Delhi," Delhi chief electoral officer Vijay Dev said.—PTI

New Delhi, April 8
Close to 500 protesters were detained by the police in east Delhi's Gazipur area when they arrived there today, demanding the Karbala land in south Delhi's Jor Bagh locality to be handed over to the Shia Muslim community.

The protesters came walking from the Vaishali Metro station in Ghaziabad at about 4.20 pm. They were stopped by the Delhi Police at the barricades set up on the National Highway-24 at Gazipur, which is located along the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border. The protesters planned to march towards Gyarah Murti in the high security VIP area in New Delhi. They claimed to have taken inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi's "Dandi March".

Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawad, a Shia Muslim cleric, who was leading the protesters, said, "We want permission to go to Gyarah Murti peacefully and if we are not allowed to go there then we want to be arrested here."

A couple of minutes later, the Delhi Police escorted the protesters into buses and took them away. "We had detained 463 protesters at the Mayur Vihar Police Station and released them later. No case has been registered in regard to the protest. We detained them because they had not taken permission from us for holding the protest and secondly, they were planning on marching towards Gyarah Murti, where Section 144 has been implemented," said Ajay Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East District).

Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure bans the "unlawful assembly" of five or more persons.

Maulana Jawad said that the protest was held today to demand the Karbala land at Jor Bagh. "We want the Karbala land. Ahmed Patel (a Congress leader) has been misguiding Sonia Gandhi (on the Karbala issue). We had met Sonia Gandhi on March 29 and asked her how Ahmed Patel is a good advisor to her, even though he commits atrocities on the Shias. We will go to Amethi and Rae Bareli before the elections and raise this issue. We will tell the people there not to vote for the Congress," he said.

Rahul Gandhi is the sitting Member of Parliament from Amethi and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president, is the Member of Parliament from Rae Bareli. They are contesting the elections from there.

According to Syed Bilal Hussain, a member of the executive committee of the Anjuman-e-Haideri, the organisation that runs the Karbala land in Jor Bagh, Patel is allegedly associated with Moid Khan. Moid is the owner of the Rajdhani Nursery that is located on two and a half acres of disputed area, which is part of the nine acre Karbala land. There is currently a dispute between him and the Anjuman-e-Haideri.

New Delhi, April 8
A 22-year-old woman and her daughter who was only 28 days old were found strangulated at their residence in north-east Delhi's Nand Nagri area during the early hours of today.

The deceased have been identified by the police as Nagma and her daughter Sofia. Nagma's husband, Dildar Ali, has been lodged at the Tihar Prisons for the past two and a half months in a robbery case.

While the woman's father-in-law, Arshad Ali, has accused one of his sons, Kismat, for the two murders, the police are not ruling out his hand in the crime as well. Kismat, who is Nagma's brother-in-law, has been absconding after the murders.

The police had detained Arshad and three other family members for questioning.

The murders came to light at about 4.30 am today when Arshad shouted for help. "His neighbours heard him and saw him in a room. His hands and legs were tied. He told them that Kismat had killed his daughter-in-law and granddaughter in another room," said a police officer.

The neighbours entered the other room and found Nagma and Sofia dead. The victims were lying on bed with strangulation marks around their necks. Nagma was allegedly bleeding from her mouth.

The neighbours also saw Arshad's seven-year-old son Nihal Ali sleeping on another bed in the same room, where the bodies of the victims were found.

A neighbour informed the police about the murders. The victims were rushed to a hospital where they were pronounced dead. A case of murder has been registered at the Nand Nagri police station.