MCD polls on December 4: AAP asks its candidates to hold padyatras, door-to-door campaigns to reach out to voters

New Delhi: With all the 750 candidates of the three major parties -- AAP, BJP and Congress -- filed their nominations for the upcoming civic polls in Delhi on Monday, reports say that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has instructed its candidates to hold padyatras and door-to-door campaigns to reach out to voters ahead of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections for 250 wards.

The directions were issued at a meeting of the AAP's 250 candidates that was presided over by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia along with Environment Minister Gopal Rai and other AAP leaders including Atishi and Durgesh Pathak. The meeting discussed the campaign plan for the MCD elections and ways to put it into action were discussed, officials told PTI.

The meeting reportedly asked its candidates to hold padyatras, door-to-door campaigns and public meetings at the booth level, besides directing them to personally monitor preparations and reach out to the public.

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"You have to conduct a dress rehearsal for a padyatra in advance. Every step should be well coordinated. You should hold four-five public meetings every day," Sisodia reportedly told the candidates.

Gopal Rai, who is also the convenor of the AAP's Delhi unit, said all candidates have to listen to and understand the problems of the public by connecting with them at the grassroots level, adding "You have to remember that this is not my election or yours but the election of the people of Delhi. We have to give due respect to their needs and work to fulfil them. All the candidates have to deploy as many people as possible at all the booths in their area. The larger the number, the better the preparation."

BJP, AAP, Congress candidates file nominations on last day 

Amid huge rush, all 750 candidates of the three major parties in the national capital -- the AAP, BJP and Congress -- filed their nominations here on Monday for the upcoming civic polls. November 14 was the last day for filing nominations for the high-stakes Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections for 250 wards. The MCD polls will be held on December 4 while the counting of votes will take place on December 7.

The tabulation of data from nominations filed is underway. An official source told PTI, "Due to the single-day rush, the nomination process for all candidates who had arrived by 3 PM continued till late evening, and the process of uploading of nomination documents is underway. Till 11 PM, 2,048 nominations from 1,593 candidates have been uploaded, and the rest of the uploading will be completed soon," an official source told PTI.

A total of 2,394 nominations of 1,871 candidates were uploaded till Monday midnight and the rest were being uploaded. The process for the receipt of nominations went completely smoothly and elaborate arrangements had reportedly been put in place at all ROs headquarters.

"All 750 candidates of the AAP, BJP, and Congress filed their nominations on the last day today. Many independents have also filed nominations besides those from other parties," another official source at the State Election Commission told PTI. 

All three parties also confirmed that their 250 candidates each for as many wards have filed the papers. Notably, merely 35 nominations had been filed till Friday, since the process opened on November 7. Of the 28 nominations filed on Friday, 18 were male, and 10 were female. Twenty of these were filed by independents and eight by leaders of four political parties, including five from the BSP, a senior official had earlier said.

Since no nomination papers were received by returning officers on November 12-13 on account of public holidays, on Monday there was a huge rush to file nominations by candidates, officials said.

The Delhi BJP stated that all its 250 candidates filed their papers for the polls, while the AAP and Congress also said that their 250-250 candidates each have filed the papers. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on November 16, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is November 19.

BJP had announced its second list of 18 candidates in the wee hours of Monday and replaced official candidates in nine wards just hours before the nomination process concluded. Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta interacting with party candidates in several wards, said here that the party is going to perform better than its performance in the previous MCD polls.

In the 2017 civic elections, the BJP had won 181 of the 270 wards while the AAP could win wards and the Congress was restricted to only 27. No polling could take place on two seats due to the death of candidates. 

(With PTI Inputs)