Stage set for Delhi Assembly polls, ECI to announce election schedule today

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) will host a press conference today to announce the schedule for the General Election to the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi. The press briefing is scheduled to begin at 2:00 PM at the Plenary Hall, Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

The Commission has invited media personnel from across the country to attend the event, which will provide the much-awaited details regarding the election dates and other logistical aspects of the Delhi assembly elections.

AAP won 62 out of the 70 seats in the 2020 assembly elections and BJP secured eight seats.

Earlier, Aam Aadmi Party Chief Arvind Kejriwal claimed that a “Large-Scale” fraud in voter addition and deletions in the New Delhi Assembly seat is taking place.

In a post on X, Kejriwal cited a letter from Chief Minister Atishi sent to Delhi Chief Electoral Officer. “Large-scale fraud taking place in voter additions and deletions in the New Delhi assembly. Delhi CM Atishi ji writes this letter to CEC presenting evidence and seeking time to meet,” he said.

CM Atishi, in her letter to the Delhi CEO, said, “I am writing to urgently draw your attention towards a significant surge in voter addition and deletion applications in the New Delhi Assembly Constituency over the past few days. “She mentioned that from October 29, 2024, to January 2, 2025, a total of 13,276 Form-6 were received. “From October 29 to January 2, 6,166 Form-7 were received,” CM Atishi said.

“Total no of votes, as per draft electoral rolls published after summary revision on 29 October 2024, is 1,06,873. Number of votes sought to be deleted is 6,166, which is 5.77 per cent of total votes,” she added.

The Delhi CM, in her letter, said that as per various rules, if the number of deletions sought is more than 2 percent of total votes, then the Election Registration Officer (ERO) will personally verify each deletion request.

In its counter response, BJP Delhi president Virendraa Sachdeva accused Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh of threatening the election officer and called for action against them.

This came after the New Delhi District Election Officer wrote a letter to Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer on the issue of AAP leaders’ allegations related to voter deletion in the New Delhi Assembly Constituency area.Sachdeva further alleged that Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha are involved in the conspiracy to murder democracy.