With Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir Assembly elections over, the Election Commission of India has set the ball rolling for Delhi elections. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has called a meeting of all the stakeholders to review the level of preparedness on Wednesday. The meeting will also take an account of the prevailing law and order situation in the national Capital and the threat perceptions in the wake of President Barack Obama’s visit. Threat of a terrorist strike looms large after the open threat of lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed to target the Capital.
Sources said that ECI has asked Delhi Police to come out with the detailed roadmap for the fair and free conduct of the Assembly polls. Rumours are doing the rounds that Delhi Assembly polls either held in February or in April. ECI has no time to decide the District Magistrate of New Delhi’s report regarding over-expenditure by AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal during Assembly polls.
Top sources told The Pioneer that ECI is likely to discuss the current status of electoral rolls as per draft publication and summary revision of electoral rolls in 2015 and law and order status and security assessment of the district level in the wake of religious and communal violence in several parts of the city in the past few months such communal violence in Trilokpuri, Tughlakabad and Seemapuri. A church was burnt in Seemapuri area last month.
Sources said that the police will also be asked to prepare a vulnerability mapping and critical polling stations. Sources said that the Commission may ask Delhi Police to conduct a fresh survey to find out new vulnerability points across the city. As per directions, Deputy Electoral Officers (DEOs) and Deputy Commissioner of Polices (DCPs) will also attend the meeting.
The Commission may also discuss the action plan for continuous updation after final publication of electoral rolls to minimise complaints of deletion and elimination of the names of existing voters. The ECI will also discuss about assessment of manpower requirement and availability particularly for polling stations, sector officer, micro observer and expenditure control; strategy for postal ballot for all personnel and database and availability of vehicles/video cameras and other election materials. The DEOs and DCPs will be asked to make presentation on the discussion points during the said meeting.
Delhi went into elections on December 4, 2013; the number of electorate stood at 1,19,32,067, of which 67 per cent (75,94,485) cast their vote. No sooner had AAP got 28 seats out of 70, as against BJP’s 32 and Congress’ 8, Kejriwal declared he had his sights on the Maharashtra elections.
The BJP refused to form a Government on December 12. The Congress gave unconditional support to AAP on December 13. The Arvind Kejriwal formed the Government with the support of Congress on December 22, 2013 and resigned on February 16, 2014, after the party’s pet project, the Jan lokpal Bill, could not be put on the floor of the House of Delhi Assembly due to opposition from BJP and Congress. The Delhi Assembly was dissolved on November 4 by President Pranab Mukherjee following recommendation by the Union Cabinet.