Four days after the Election Commission issued notifications for by-polls to three Assembly constituencies in the Capital, the response from the main political parties here has been muted. Not a single candidate has filed nominations to contest elections in Mehrauli, Tughlakabad and Krishna Nagar Assembly constituencies. Even Independents who have been enthusiastic participants in the election process so far have not come forward to officially put themselves in the poll race.
A senior official in the Delhi Election Commission said the response could be attributed to the “prevailing uncertainty of fresh polls” in the city, which has affected the “tempo” of the election process. The Capital has been under the President’s Rule ever since the Aam Aadmi Party-led government terminated its 49-day stint over the non-passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Legislative Assembly in February this year.
With three of the sitting Bharatiya Janata Party legislators — Parvesh Verma, Harsh Vardhan and Ramesh Bidhuri — elected to the Lok Sabha in May, three constituencies, two in South Delhi and one in East Delhi, fell vacant prompting the November 25 by-polls. The main political parties, the BJP, the Congress and the AAP, say that the process of shortlisting candidates has began with Friday seeing several meetings in party offices.
While AAP leaders said the party will now focus on the by-elections to the three Assembly constituencies and the process of shortlisting candidates had begun, the Congress Delhi chief Arvinder Singh had called for meetings to assess the preparations and said the election committee will shortlist names soon.
The BJP has ordered district level committees in these three Assembly constituencies to start preparations for the by-polls and has asked its party workers to knock on doors and make its presence felt, said a senior BJP leader.
