The Delhi Election Commission has held outgoing Revenue Minister Arvinder Singh and five other candidates from the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party guilty of resorting to paid news during the ongoing elections .
Addressing journalists on Monday, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev said a detailed report will be sent to the Election Commission of India after the electoral process. He did not disclose the names of the publications involved.
Besides Mr. Singh, who is contesting from the Gandhinagar Assembly constituency, others in the list are Congress candidate from Moti Nagar Sushil Gupta; BJP candidates from Narela and Sadar Bazar -- Neel Daman Kahtri and Jai Prakash; and BSP candidates from Nagloi Jat and R.K. Puram -- Mohammad Saleem Saify and Dheeraj Kumar Tokas.
The violators, if elected, face disqualification if the total expenditure by adding the held back expenses on paid news exceeds the ceiling of Rs. 14 lakh per candidate. The violators were issued notice seeking their explanation but their responses were found unsatisfactory, Mr. Dev said.
In all, the Commission received 60 complaints of paid news. Of these, eight complaints were not confirmed. So far, 28 candidates have been served notices. For the remaining, the process is under way, Mr. Dev stated.
The Chief Electoral Officer said more than 1.19 crore voters are ready to exercise their franchise on December 4. Of these, 53.2 lakh are women.
The Delhi Election Commission also said that it would issue temporary voter Ids at polling stations to those who have been enrolled but have not received their Election Photo Identity Cards (EPIC).
On measures taken for those voters who work in the NCR region, Mr. Dev said the commission has told their employers that they will shall have to make arrangements to enable their employees to vote and not to deduct their wages if they abstain from work .
