The Hindu : New Delhi News : Stage set for polling today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 13, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Stage set for polling today

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 12. Even as the candidates and their supporters concentrated on door-to-door canvassing throughout the day today in their last bid to woo the voters, the Election Commission gave final touches to its preparations for a fair and smooth conduct of by-elections to the two Delhi Assembly seats -- Rajouri Garden and Baljeet Nagar (SC) -- this Wednesday.

Polling will begin at 8 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. The votes will be taken up for counting at 8 a.m. on October 16 and the results are expected to be announced within a few hours.

As many as 1,700 polling personnel trained in handling electronic voting machines and a 1,500-strong police and paramilitary force has been deployed by the Election Commission for polling at the 231 booths in Rajouri Garden and Baljeet Nagar. About three dozens booths have been declared sensitive. The polling personnel have been drawn from the Union and Delhi governments in accordance with the Election Commission guidelines. While 11 candidates are in the race for the Rajouri Garden Assembly segment, only six are battling it out for the Baljeet Nagar seat. Both seats are considered traditional Congress strongholds. Its senior leaders Ajay Maken and Krishna Tirath represented the Rajouri Garden and Baljeet Nagar constituencies respectively for three consecutive terms.

Though the poll pundits are betting on the Congress for both seats, the contest in Rajouri Garden mainly is between Ramesh Lamba of the Congress and Ramesh Khanna of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Also in the fray is Virender Kumar of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

In Baljeet Nagar, Rajesh Lilothia of the Congress is pitted against Raj Mehra of the BJP and Daya Ram Chandeleya of the BSP. Interestingly, there are no women candidates in the race for either of the seats, though Ms. Tirath represented Baljeet Nagar for over a decade.

Election Commission officials on Tuesday said they were expecting a low turnout of voters given the lacklustre campaigning during the preceding fortnight. Officials said postal ballots to eight service voters in Baljeet Nagar and 43 in Rajouri Garden had already been despatched.

Officials said that besides the regular police and security forces a special team of officials equipped with communication gadgets would be moving around the two Assembly constituencies during the day. The Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi has set up a helpline, 23918888, for political parties and the 17 contestants, while two more numbers -- 23994055, 23994007 -- are for the citizens to seek clarifications about the electoral rolls.

With the campaigning over peacefully on Monday, the BJP today complained that Mr. Maken was holding public meetings in Rajouri Garden accompanied by drumbeaters. Following a quick inquiry by the Election Commission, the District Election Officer, A. S. Dagar, said Mr. Maken had gone to meet one of his friends in the area and was not campaigning for the party.

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