New Delhi [India], January 19 : A total of 719 candidates will contest elections on the 70 seats of the Delhi Assembly for the upcoming polls scheduled to be held on February 5, according to the Election Commission of India.
According to the data of the ECI, the total number of candidates after scrutiny is 719. The nominations were filed by 981 candidates.
The scrutiny of the nominations was done on January 18, as the last date for filing nominations was January 17. The last date for the withdrawal of candidature is January 8.
A total of 1,040 nominations have been accepted during scrutiny of the nominations filed by several candidates for the assembly elections for the 70 seats of the Delhi Assembly.
As per the ECI, a total of 477 nominations have been rejected out of the total nominations filed.
The most number of candidates are on the New Delhi assembly constituency - 23, while the lowest number of candidate is on Patel Nagar and Kasturba Nagar - 5.
The maximum number of nomination papers were filed in the New Delhi Assembly Constituency and a total of 29 candidates had filed 40 nomination papers for this seat.
Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is contesting elections from the New Delhi seat against the sons of two former Delhi CMs, i.e, BJP's Parvesh Verma (son of Sahib Singh Verma) and Congress' Sandeep Dikshit (son of Sheila Dikshit).
The minimum number of nomination papers were filed in Kasturba Nagar Assembly Constituency and a total of 6 candidates had filed a total of 9 nomination papers.
AAP has fielded Ramesh Pahalwan, BJP has fielded Neeraj Basoya and Congress has fielded Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar seat.
As the assembly elections inch closer, the poll battle in the national capital has also intensified, with the three parties - AAP, BJP, and Congress levelling allegations against each other.
Delhi will go for polls in a single phase on February 5 while the counting of votes will take place on February 8.
The Congress, which was in power for 15 consecutive years in Delhi, has suffered setbacks in the last two assembly elections and has failed to win any seat. In contrast, the AAP dominated the 2020 assembly elections by winning 62 out of 70 seats while the BJP got only eight seats.