The Congress leadership is in a fix as 23 Councillors who won on the Congress ticket, including leaders of Opposition of the three municipal corporations, have sought tickets for the upcoming Assembly polls.
Interestingly, out of the 27 members of the Delhi Pradesh Election Committee, 17 members are seeking party nomination either for themselves or their families.
Sources in Delhi Congress said that leader of Opposition of South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Farhad Suri has applied for a ticket from Jangpura Assembly seat while North Delhi Municipal Corporation leader of opposition Mukesh Goel is seeking a ticket from Adarsh Nagar.
East Delhi Municipal Corporation's leader of opposition Varyam Kaur has applied for Krishna Nagar seat. Sitting Councillor Taj Mohammed is seeking a ticket from Mustafabad while Devraj Arora is seeking one from from Shakur Basti.
Councillor Pradeep Sharma is seeking a ticket from Moti Nagar; Raj Kumar Khokar from Hari Nagar; Savita Sharma and Zakir from Babarpur; Rekha Rani from Ghonda; Anjana Pracha from Trilokpuri; Virender Kasana from Greater Kailash; Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar; Rinku from Seemapuri; Soaib Danish from Okhla; Harsh Sharma from Chandni Chowk; Amrita Dhawan from Tilak Nagar; Ravi Kalsi from Kasturba Nagar; cricketer Virender Sehwag's sister and sitting Councillor from Dakshinpuri Anju Sehwag from Najafgarh; Sandeep Tanwar from Delhi Cantonment, Meghraj and Meenakshi from Tilak Nagar.
When asked, Delhi Congress president Jai Prakash Agarwal said the party will have to formulate a policy on tickets for Councillors."There is a general consensus that the party leadership should decide whether or not to give tickets to Councillors by assessing the situation on a seat by seat and case by case basis," he said.
Other members who have applied for tickets include Arvinder Sing lovely, Prem Singh, Tajdar Babar, Subhash Chopra, Mahabal Mishra, Parvez Hashmi, Manish Chatrath, Naseeb Singh, Jitender Kochar Sudesh Sangwan and Onika Mehrotra. They are seeking tickets for themselves or for their kith and kin.
Show cause notice
The electoral office of Delhi has issued show cause notice to BJP MlA from Karawal Nagar Mohan Singh Bisht for organizing a procession without due permission from the concerned authorities including Delhi police. Delhi police has also registered a case under Section 188 Indian Penal Code in Khajuri Khas police station. In a related development, a delegation led by Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel met Chief Electoral Office Vijay Dev and reportedly complained that Delhi police is doing excess in the name of model code of conduct.
190 model code violations
Over 190 cases for violation of model code of conduct has been registered across the city and majority of them are under Defacement of Prevention and Property Act 2007. Officials say that they have been received a large number of complaints from all parties for violation model code of conduct. Majority of the cases are from South West Delhi.
Eye on black money
Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev has called a meeting with managers of SBI, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Delhi police officials to check using of black money and expenditure limit up to 14 lakh by each candidates in the coming assembly polls. Financial Intelligence Unit's additional director Amitav and Additional Director of Income Tax. Rajesh Jha and Economic Offence Wing (EoW) Joint CP Pravir Ranjan will also attend the meeting. Sources said that the meeting with bank officials, police and income tax officials is convened to chalk out strategy to keep eye on black money flow during the elections. This is the first time the EC has ordered to set up a flying squad and intelligence unit. to keep check on black money and over spending by candidates and political parties.