Campaign for Bawana bypoll ends, polling on August 23

NEW DELHI: The high-pitched campaign for the Bawana Assembly by-election ended at 6 pm on Monday, with a three-cornered battle with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, BJP and Congress taking place on Wednesday.

Eight candidates are in the fray for the by-election on August 23 from the seat reserved for the Scheduled Caste category.

There are over 2.94 lakh electors eligible to exercise their franchise in the upcoming bypoll in Delhi, in which Electronic Voting Machines equipped with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) would be used at all polling stations.

Bawana, a reserved constituency in northwest Delhi has 2,88,000 electors. The results will be announced on 28 August.

On Monday, the Delhi government asked employers to grant a day's paid leaves to their employees, who are eligible to vote in the Bawana bypoll on Wednesday.

To woo voters, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari visited a largely Dalit-populated slum at Shahbad Dairy area to meet local residents and had lunch with the family of Srichand, a rickshaw puller.

Meanwhile, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken blamed the BJP and AAP for failing to deliver on their promises.

The bypoll, Maken said, was necessary for the development of Bawana and ensure the victory of three-time MLA Surender Kumar, who has done a lot of development works in the area.

The by-election was necessitated after the defection of former AAP legislator Ved Prakash to BJP.

For AAP, the bypoll is their opportunity to showcase the work they have done. Meanwhile, the BJP will be looking to increase its seats tally, and the Congress will look to make an entry into the Assembly.

The instructions issued by the General Administration department of the government noted: "Every person employed in any business, trade, industrial undertaking or any other establishment and entitled to vote, shall be granted a holiday on 23.08.2017 (Wednesday)."

"No deduction or abatement of the wages shall be made on account of above holiday and if any person is employed on the basis that he would not ordinarily receive wages for such a day, he shall nonetheless be paid wages he would have drawn had not a holiday been granted to him/her on that day," it reads.