EC announces dates, Delhi goes to polls on May 12

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Sunday announced that Delhi will go to polls on May 12 in the sixth phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, all the eyes will be set on May 23 when the votes will be counted. The last general elections in 2014 were held in nine phases and residents of the National Capital Territory cast their votes during the third phase on April 10.

With the Model Code of Conduct coming into play, the regulatory body also announced that advertising restrictions set out in the Election Manual are to include social media platforms.

Bharatiya Janata Party, Aam Aadmi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party and Congress had fielded their candidates on all seven Lok Sabha seats in 2014. All India Trinamool Congress fought on five seats. The BJP took over all the seven constituencies in Delhi, electing Parvesh Verma, Udit Raj, Maheish Girri, Manoj Tiwari, Ramesh Bidhuri, Meenakshi Lekhi, and Harsh Vardhan to the Lower House.

AAP has already announced six of its candidates for the Delhi seats, except West Delhi constituency for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Following the tradition of disclosing candidate lists in the last minute, BJP has not yet come out with their list of candidates. No other party has as of now announced their candidates for the capital city fight.

In a tweet after the EC announcement, Arvind Kejriwal said: "Ultimately back to We the people -the real power of our democracy. Time to throw out the most dictatorial and anti-federal govt in the history of India. Time to seek answers on demonetisation, jobs, destruction of traders n destroying brotherhood amongst different communities."

In order to ensure safe and fair elections, the Election Cell of Delhi Police has made provisions for DCPs in all districts to review arms licence holders and criminal records in their respective jurisdictions if necessary. They will also be tracking illegal cash transactions or any distribution of illegal liquor or any other items suspected to influence the voters.

In addition, the police might also be having as many as 178 flying squads to keep tabs during the polls in Delhi. Police sources have also told the Millennium Post that district DCPs have asked concerned ACPs and SHOs to conduct a thorough verification of election booths and submit the report to them as soon as possible.